BARBARA KAISERMANN DRAVES

Barbara Kaisermann Draves died Feb. 16 two weeks before her 89th birthday in Redlands, Calif., after a brief illness. She was born in Delavan on a leap year, Feb. 29, 1924. She graduated from Delavan High School and attended St. Mary’s College in South Bend and graduated from the University of Indiana. She married Henry Charles Draves and for the next 20 years they traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad. In 1960 the family moved to Redlands, Calif., where they lived until Henry’s retirement from the U.S. Air Force in 1963 when they moved back to Delavan. After her husband’s death, she returned to California, where she lived the remainder of her life. All who knew her will remember her positive outlook and enthusiastic love of life. She is survived by her daughter, Evanne Draves Miller of Philomath, Ore.; son, William A. Draves of Twin Falls, Idaho and seven grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her son, Henry Charles III in 1986 and her daughter, Carmin in 2008. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 25 at the United Church of Christ in Delavan following a visitation at 10 a.m.

2 Comments

  1. My mother Mary Rita (Brice) Mathews was Barbara’s roommate on East 2nd Street in Bloomington, Indiana. Life @ IU was good; Fleety’s lunch room for 2 or 3 mornings per week. Mary Rita worked as typist for the IU Sociological Dept., hitting a bar on Fridays, they always ate spaghetti without meat they could not afford. Barbara and Hank eloped, his AF serial was 16171189

    When Evanne was a baby Mary Rita met them on the M Track platform traveling from CA east to visit Hank.