Barbara Magnuson

Barbara Ann (Mitchell) Magnuson was born April 30, 1931, and passed away at home on February 26, 2025, at age 93. She died from Alzheimer’s complications.

Barbara “Barbie” was born in Swedish Hospital in Seattle, Washington to Perry Howard and Dorothy Ann (Asher) Mitchell. She was the second daughter born to Perry and Dorothy. Her older sister Beverlee Jeanne (Mitchell) Cooke preceded her in death. Barbara grew up in Renton, Washington and attended Renton Elementary, Junior High, and High School, graduating in 1949. The family moved to Ellensburg, Washington in 1949 and Barbara attended Washington State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education in 1953.

After WSU graduation, Barbara worked as a fifth-grade teacher in the Shoreline School District north of Seattle for three years. In 1956 she joined United Airlines and went through stewardess training in Cheyenne, Wyoming. While in training, Barbara met her future husband, Waldo G. Magnuson, Jr., who was stationed at Francis E. Warren AFB. They were married in April of 1957. Barbara flew with United Airlines out of Los Angeles, CA until her marriage to Waldo. United did not allow stewardesses to be married at that time.

In August 1957, she and her husband moved to Sierra Madre, CA, where her husband worked for the Naval Ordinance Test Station in Pasadena. She worked first with Sierra Engineering as a PBX operator and then as a teacher in Arcada, CA. Their first son, Scott, was born in 1960 in Pasadena.

In 1961, the family moved first to Richland, WA and then in the autumn to Corvallis, Oregon where her husband entered the graduate program in electrical engineering at Oregon State University. After her husband’s graduations, they moved to Livermore, CA in 1964 where Barbara taught in the Livermore School District until retirement in 1990. Her second son, Brett (1964), and first daughter, Merrilee (1966), were born while in Livermore. While living in Livermore, many trips to Washington state were in their Bonanza aircraft to visit family.

After retirement of both Barbara and Waldo in 1990, they moved to Spokane, WA and lived in a log home just north of Spokane.

Barbara is survived by her husband, Waldo G. Magnuson, Jr., and her two children, Brett Douglas Magnuson (Nubis) of Bothell, WA, and Merrilee Ann Lane (James) of Spokane, WA. Her son Scott Bradley Magnuson died in 1980 from cancer. She has three grandchildren: Ashlee Ann Lane McQueen, Samantha Marie Lane Deubel (Bradly), and Rebecca Louise Lane (Jacob) and three great-grandchildren: Theodore Deubel, Emberlee Deubel, and Elliott Deubel.