Obituary: Mavis Barnard, 88, of Cardiff died Sept. 21. She was born April 27, 1919 in San Diego and was retired.
Survivors include her daughter, Ramona Cemper of Cardiff; son, Ken Barnard of Cardiff; and one grandchild.
Services: none announced. Scattering of ashes: at sea. Donations: San Diego Hospice, 4311 Third Ave., San Diego, CA 92103-1407. Arrangements: Telophase Cremation Society.
Published in The San Diego Union-Tribune (San Diego, California) on Monday, October 8, 2007.
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Remembering Mavis Tollit Barnard
Mavis Tollit Barnard was a foster mother to 83 children during more than 25 years in that role in San Diego County.
The majority of those foster children had some sort of physical or mental disability when she and her husband Del Barnard welcomed the young children into their bungalow in Cardiff, with the wood floors and knotty pine walls and a huge Torrey pine outside.
Throughout those years of unfettered love for their foster children, she always dressed them in good clothes, so as not to attract attention to them in school and emphatically treated each of them as her own child. When they left, she suffered the pangs of separation, but took solace in knowing she had helped them advance in their lives.
So dedicated was she to her foster children that she could name each one individually many years later for a reporter from The Citizen.
Mavis Tollit Barnard, 88, died Sept. 21, as her sole adopted daughter, Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper held her hand. She is also survived by her son Ken Barnard, son-in-law Mike Cemper, and grandson Tanner Cemper.
Family members are scheduled to spread her ashes in the ocean today in a private ceremony in the same area where her husband, Del Barnard's ashes were spread.
During World War II, Mavis Tollit Barnard gave birth to son Ken. After her first marriage failed, she met and married Del Barnard, who adopted Ken as his son. Years later, she told a reporter that she had wanted to have six children.
Instead, she began her foster parenting in 1951 while living in El Cajon, when she signed the paperwork for her first foster child, she told a reporter in a May 25, 1977 story in the Coast Dispatch.
By the time the Barnards moved to Cardiff in 1966, they had handled dozens of foster children, some staying longer than others, depending upon their natural family's status or their adoption status.
At one point, the front room of the small Barnard house had six young foster children, all six years old or younger, all in cribs or small beds.
A perfect reflection of Mavis Barnard's unique passion for young disabled children is the only child she adopted, her daughter Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper.
Born Sept. 11, 1968, in Mexico, when she was three months old, doctors doubted she'd see her first birthday due to severe heart problems.
A few years later, doctors predicted that her severe heart condition and subsequent heart surgery would preclude her from reaching her 7th birthday. The same dour predictions were forecast before she turned 11.
Now 39, she attributes her longevity to the most dominant figure in her life, her adoptive mother Mavis Barnard, who was "more of a mother to me than my mother," she said last week.
Del and Mavis Tollit Barnard became little Ramona's foster parents when she was 13 months old. "Once they saw me they fell in love with me," Ramona Cemper said.
"When people told me my health was too unstable to get married, she encouraged me to move forward (with Mike). When they said my body couldn't handle getting pregnant, she delighted in my son's birth."
While arranging life-saving heart surgery for her, Mavis Barnard also "made sure that I stayed in touch with my biological family (in Mexico.) For many years, we'd regularly travel down there to visit them and take food and supplies with us for them," said Ramona Cemper
Mike Cemper said, "Mavis did so much for everyone else. She would never accept praise for anything because she was too busy giving. Look no further than my wife. She took her through four heart surgeries. Remember this is a woman who also loved the kids she taught at the day care center."
Pam Dvorak of the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Day Care Center said Mavis Barnard was a credentialed teacher who taught at the center for nearly 15 years before retiring in the '70s.
"She was an outstanding teacher," Dvorak said. "She was one of those teachers who was a natural. … She was one of the most giving women I've ever met. An incredible woman. An outstanding educator. She always went beyond what is expected of teachers. She led by example. She touched everyone."
Ramona Cemper said her mother also volunteered at Cardiff Elementary and Ada Harris where she worked until 2001, when she broke her knee during a fall at Children's Hospital.
In 1972 and 1977, the County Department of Public Welfare gave awards and presentations Del and Mavis Barnard for their long years of service to foster parenting in the county system.
"But, through it all, Mom was always into our family, even 'til the end," said Ramona Cemper.
After Mavis Barnard suffered a heart attack on Sept. 13, she asked her doctors to keep her alive until she could see her grandson graduate from the San Dieguito Academy in June.
When doctors told the family the heart damage was too severe, arrangements were made to have a staged graduation at the hospital, with academy Assistant Principal Jeanne Jones presiding.
"It was an incredible moment," Ramona Cemper said. "During that ceremony you could hear a pin drop. After my mother saw my son graduate, she was truly at peace with the world. She cared about us 'til the end."
Contact staff writer J. Stryker Meyer at (760) 901-4089 or [email protected].
Published in the North County Times (Escondido, California) on Sunday, October 21, 2007.
Contributor: Steven Phillips (49619983)
Survivors include her daughter, Ramona Cemper of Cardiff; son, Ken Barnard of Cardiff; and one grandchild.
Services: none announced. Scattering of ashes: at sea. Donations: San Diego Hospice, 4311 Third Ave., San Diego, CA 92103-1407. Arrangements: Telophase Cremation Society.
Published in The San Diego Union-Tribune (San Diego, California) on Monday, October 8, 2007.
——————
Remembering Mavis Tollit Barnard
Mavis Tollit Barnard was a foster mother to 83 children during more than 25 years in that role in San Diego County.
The majority of those foster children had some sort of physical or mental disability when she and her husband Del Barnard welcomed the young children into their bungalow in Cardiff, with the wood floors and knotty pine walls and a huge Torrey pine outside.
Throughout those years of unfettered love for their foster children, she always dressed them in good clothes, so as not to attract attention to them in school and emphatically treated each of them as her own child. When they left, she suffered the pangs of separation, but took solace in knowing she had helped them advance in their lives.
So dedicated was she to her foster children that she could name each one individually many years later for a reporter from The Citizen.
Mavis Tollit Barnard, 88, died Sept. 21, as her sole adopted daughter, Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper held her hand. She is also survived by her son Ken Barnard, son-in-law Mike Cemper, and grandson Tanner Cemper.
Family members are scheduled to spread her ashes in the ocean today in a private ceremony in the same area where her husband, Del Barnard's ashes were spread.
During World War II, Mavis Tollit Barnard gave birth to son Ken. After her first marriage failed, she met and married Del Barnard, who adopted Ken as his son. Years later, she told a reporter that she had wanted to have six children.
Instead, she began her foster parenting in 1951 while living in El Cajon, when she signed the paperwork for her first foster child, she told a reporter in a May 25, 1977 story in the Coast Dispatch.
By the time the Barnards moved to Cardiff in 1966, they had handled dozens of foster children, some staying longer than others, depending upon their natural family's status or their adoption status.
At one point, the front room of the small Barnard house had six young foster children, all six years old or younger, all in cribs or small beds.
A perfect reflection of Mavis Barnard's unique passion for young disabled children is the only child she adopted, her daughter Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper.
Born Sept. 11, 1968, in Mexico, when she was three months old, doctors doubted she'd see her first birthday due to severe heart problems.
A few years later, doctors predicted that her severe heart condition and subsequent heart surgery would preclude her from reaching her 7th birthday. The same dour predictions were forecast before she turned 11.
Now 39, she attributes her longevity to the most dominant figure in her life, her adoptive mother Mavis Barnard, who was "more of a mother to me than my mother," she said last week.
Del and Mavis Tollit Barnard became little Ramona's foster parents when she was 13 months old. "Once they saw me they fell in love with me," Ramona Cemper said.
"When people told me my health was too unstable to get married, she encouraged me to move forward (with Mike). When they said my body couldn't handle getting pregnant, she delighted in my son's birth."
While arranging life-saving heart surgery for her, Mavis Barnard also "made sure that I stayed in touch with my biological family (in Mexico.) For many years, we'd regularly travel down there to visit them and take food and supplies with us for them," said Ramona Cemper
Mike Cemper said, "Mavis did so much for everyone else. She would never accept praise for anything because she was too busy giving. Look no further than my wife. She took her through four heart surgeries. Remember this is a woman who also loved the kids she taught at the day care center."
Pam Dvorak of the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Day Care Center said Mavis Barnard was a credentialed teacher who taught at the center for nearly 15 years before retiring in the '70s.
"She was an outstanding teacher," Dvorak said. "She was one of those teachers who was a natural. … She was one of the most giving women I've ever met. An incredible woman. An outstanding educator. She always went beyond what is expected of teachers. She led by example. She touched everyone."
Ramona Cemper said her mother also volunteered at Cardiff Elementary and Ada Harris where she worked until 2001, when she broke her knee during a fall at Children's Hospital.
In 1972 and 1977, the County Department of Public Welfare gave awards and presentations Del and Mavis Barnard for their long years of service to foster parenting in the county system.
"But, through it all, Mom was always into our family, even 'til the end," said Ramona Cemper.
After Mavis Barnard suffered a heart attack on Sept. 13, she asked her doctors to keep her alive until she could see her grandson graduate from the San Dieguito Academy in June.
When doctors told the family the heart damage was too severe, arrangements were made to have a staged graduation at the hospital, with academy Assistant Principal Jeanne Jones presiding.
"It was an incredible moment," Ramona Cemper said. "During that ceremony you could hear a pin drop. After my mother saw my son graduate, she was truly at peace with the world. She cared about us 'til the end."
Contact staff writer J. Stryker Meyer at (760) 901-4089 or [email protected].
Published in the North County Times (Escondido, California) on Sunday, October 21, 2007.
Contributor: Steven Phillips (49619983)
Obituary: Mavis Barnard, 88, of Cardiff died Sept. 21. She was born April 27, 1919 in San Diego and was retired.
Survivors include her daughter, Ramona Cemper of Cardiff; son, Ken Barnard of Cardiff; and one grandchild.
Services: none announced. Scattering of ashes: at sea. Donations: San Diego Hospice, 4311 Third Ave., San Diego, CA 92103-1407. Arrangements: Telophase Cremation Society.
Published in The San Diego Union-Tribune (San Diego, California) on Monday, October 8, 2007.
——————
Remembering Mavis Tollit Barnard
Mavis Tollit Barnard was a foster mother to 83 children during more than 25 years in that role in San Diego County.
The majority of those foster children had some sort of physical or mental disability when she and her husband Del Barnard welcomed the young children into their bungalow in Cardiff, with the wood floors and knotty pine walls and a huge Torrey pine outside.
Throughout those years of unfettered love for their foster children, she always dressed them in good clothes, so as not to attract attention to them in school and emphatically treated each of them as her own child. When they left, she suffered the pangs of separation, but took solace in knowing she had helped them advance in their lives.
So dedicated was she to her foster children that she could name each one individually many years later for a reporter from The Citizen.
Mavis Tollit Barnard, 88, died Sept. 21, as her sole adopted daughter, Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper held her hand. She is also survived by her son Ken Barnard, son-in-law Mike Cemper, and grandson Tanner Cemper.
Family members are scheduled to spread her ashes in the ocean today in a private ceremony in the same area where her husband, Del Barnard's ashes were spread.
During World War II, Mavis Tollit Barnard gave birth to son Ken. After her first marriage failed, she met and married Del Barnard, who adopted Ken as his son. Years later, she told a reporter that she had wanted to have six children.
Instead, she began her foster parenting in 1951 while living in El Cajon, when she signed the paperwork for her first foster child, she told a reporter in a May 25, 1977 story in the Coast Dispatch.
By the time the Barnards moved to Cardiff in 1966, they had handled dozens of foster children, some staying longer than others, depending upon their natural family's status or their adoption status.
At one point, the front room of the small Barnard house had six young foster children, all six years old or younger, all in cribs or small beds.
A perfect reflection of Mavis Barnard's unique passion for young disabled children is the only child she adopted, her daughter Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper.
Born Sept. 11, 1968, in Mexico, when she was three months old, doctors doubted she'd see her first birthday due to severe heart problems.
A few years later, doctors predicted that her severe heart condition and subsequent heart surgery would preclude her from reaching her 7th birthday. The same dour predictions were forecast before she turned 11.
Now 39, she attributes her longevity to the most dominant figure in her life, her adoptive mother Mavis Barnard, who was "more of a mother to me than my mother," she said last week.
Del and Mavis Tollit Barnard became little Ramona's foster parents when she was 13 months old. "Once they saw me they fell in love with me," Ramona Cemper said.
"When people told me my health was too unstable to get married, she encouraged me to move forward (with Mike). When they said my body couldn't handle getting pregnant, she delighted in my son's birth."
While arranging life-saving heart surgery for her, Mavis Barnard also "made sure that I stayed in touch with my biological family (in Mexico.) For many years, we'd regularly travel down there to visit them and take food and supplies with us for them," said Ramona Cemper
Mike Cemper said, "Mavis did so much for everyone else. She would never accept praise for anything because she was too busy giving. Look no further than my wife. She took her through four heart surgeries. Remember this is a woman who also loved the kids she taught at the day care center."
Pam Dvorak of the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Day Care Center said Mavis Barnard was a credentialed teacher who taught at the center for nearly 15 years before retiring in the '70s.
"She was an outstanding teacher," Dvorak said. "She was one of those teachers who was a natural. … She was one of the most giving women I've ever met. An incredible woman. An outstanding educator. She always went beyond what is expected of teachers. She led by example. She touched everyone."
Ramona Cemper said her mother also volunteered at Cardiff Elementary and Ada Harris where she worked until 2001, when she broke her knee during a fall at Children's Hospital.
In 1972 and 1977, the County Department of Public Welfare gave awards and presentations Del and Mavis Barnard for their long years of service to foster parenting in the county system.
"But, through it all, Mom was always into our family, even 'til the end," said Ramona Cemper.
After Mavis Barnard suffered a heart attack on Sept. 13, she asked her doctors to keep her alive until she could see her grandson graduate from the San Dieguito Academy in June.
When doctors told the family the heart damage was too severe, arrangements were made to have a staged graduation at the hospital, with academy Assistant Principal Jeanne Jones presiding.
"It was an incredible moment," Ramona Cemper said. "During that ceremony you could hear a pin drop. After my mother saw my son graduate, she was truly at peace with the world. She cared about us 'til the end."
Contact staff writer J. Stryker Meyer at (760) 901-4089 or [email protected].
Published in the North County Times (Escondido, California) on Sunday, October 21, 2007.
Contributor: Steven Phillips (49619983)
Survivors include her daughter, Ramona Cemper of Cardiff; son, Ken Barnard of Cardiff; and one grandchild.
Services: none announced. Scattering of ashes: at sea. Donations: San Diego Hospice, 4311 Third Ave., San Diego, CA 92103-1407. Arrangements: Telophase Cremation Society.
Published in The San Diego Union-Tribune (San Diego, California) on Monday, October 8, 2007.
——————
Remembering Mavis Tollit Barnard
Mavis Tollit Barnard was a foster mother to 83 children during more than 25 years in that role in San Diego County.
The majority of those foster children had some sort of physical or mental disability when she and her husband Del Barnard welcomed the young children into their bungalow in Cardiff, with the wood floors and knotty pine walls and a huge Torrey pine outside.
Throughout those years of unfettered love for their foster children, she always dressed them in good clothes, so as not to attract attention to them in school and emphatically treated each of them as her own child. When they left, she suffered the pangs of separation, but took solace in knowing she had helped them advance in their lives.
So dedicated was she to her foster children that she could name each one individually many years later for a reporter from The Citizen.
Mavis Tollit Barnard, 88, died Sept. 21, as her sole adopted daughter, Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper held her hand. She is also survived by her son Ken Barnard, son-in-law Mike Cemper, and grandson Tanner Cemper.
Family members are scheduled to spread her ashes in the ocean today in a private ceremony in the same area where her husband, Del Barnard's ashes were spread.
During World War II, Mavis Tollit Barnard gave birth to son Ken. After her first marriage failed, she met and married Del Barnard, who adopted Ken as his son. Years later, she told a reporter that she had wanted to have six children.
Instead, she began her foster parenting in 1951 while living in El Cajon, when she signed the paperwork for her first foster child, she told a reporter in a May 25, 1977 story in the Coast Dispatch.
By the time the Barnards moved to Cardiff in 1966, they had handled dozens of foster children, some staying longer than others, depending upon their natural family's status or their adoption status.
At one point, the front room of the small Barnard house had six young foster children, all six years old or younger, all in cribs or small beds.
A perfect reflection of Mavis Barnard's unique passion for young disabled children is the only child she adopted, her daughter Ramona Perez Barnard Cemper.
Born Sept. 11, 1968, in Mexico, when she was three months old, doctors doubted she'd see her first birthday due to severe heart problems.
A few years later, doctors predicted that her severe heart condition and subsequent heart surgery would preclude her from reaching her 7th birthday. The same dour predictions were forecast before she turned 11.
Now 39, she attributes her longevity to the most dominant figure in her life, her adoptive mother Mavis Barnard, who was "more of a mother to me than my mother," she said last week.
Del and Mavis Tollit Barnard became little Ramona's foster parents when she was 13 months old. "Once they saw me they fell in love with me," Ramona Cemper said.
"When people told me my health was too unstable to get married, she encouraged me to move forward (with Mike). When they said my body couldn't handle getting pregnant, she delighted in my son's birth."
While arranging life-saving heart surgery for her, Mavis Barnard also "made sure that I stayed in touch with my biological family (in Mexico.) For many years, we'd regularly travel down there to visit them and take food and supplies with us for them," said Ramona Cemper
Mike Cemper said, "Mavis did so much for everyone else. She would never accept praise for anything because she was too busy giving. Look no further than my wife. She took her through four heart surgeries. Remember this is a woman who also loved the kids she taught at the day care center."
Pam Dvorak of the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Day Care Center said Mavis Barnard was a credentialed teacher who taught at the center for nearly 15 years before retiring in the '70s.
"She was an outstanding teacher," Dvorak said. "She was one of those teachers who was a natural. … She was one of the most giving women I've ever met. An incredible woman. An outstanding educator. She always went beyond what is expected of teachers. She led by example. She touched everyone."
Ramona Cemper said her mother also volunteered at Cardiff Elementary and Ada Harris where she worked until 2001, when she broke her knee during a fall at Children's Hospital.
In 1972 and 1977, the County Department of Public Welfare gave awards and presentations Del and Mavis Barnard for their long years of service to foster parenting in the county system.
"But, through it all, Mom was always into our family, even 'til the end," said Ramona Cemper.
After Mavis Barnard suffered a heart attack on Sept. 13, she asked her doctors to keep her alive until she could see her grandson graduate from the San Dieguito Academy in June.
When doctors told the family the heart damage was too severe, arrangements were made to have a staged graduation at the hospital, with academy Assistant Principal Jeanne Jones presiding.
"It was an incredible moment," Ramona Cemper said. "During that ceremony you could hear a pin drop. After my mother saw my son graduate, she was truly at peace with the world. She cared about us 'til the end."
Contact staff writer J. Stryker Meyer at (760) 901-4089 or [email protected].
Published in the North County Times (Escondido, California) on Sunday, October 21, 2007.
Contributor: Steven Phillips (49619983)
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