Barbara Kate Thompson Conner

After eight years of holding off and fighting the scurge of cancer, Barbara Kate Thompson Conner went home to be with her Lord and Saviour on Sunday night at Community Hospice in Vidalia. Barbara was born into a wonderful family on St. Patricks Day, March 17, 1956, to James Oliver Thompson and Lessie Amanda Palmer Thompson of Ailey, GA.

Barbara’s birth-mother passed away in 1964, and James remarried Gloria Duggan in 1965. She graduated from Montgomery High School in 1974. In addition to FHA, one of the activities she enjoyed the most was the Girl Scouts Troop in Vidalia. In her senior year, her group leaders and her troop made a trip to Europe. She has maintained these friendships all of her life. She attended Brewton-Parker Junior College, where she was active in student government as a freshman and in the school’s award winning choir in both of her years at the school. After her graduation from Brewton-Parker, she attended Georgia College in Milledgeville, majoring in Home Economics and graduating in 1976. She lived and worked in the Athens area for several years, working a variety of jobs with Keller Optical, PYA-Monarch, and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. She also directed weddings in Athens, including those of Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s and REM’s road manager. After several years in North Georgia, she found an opportunity to teach in the Montgomery County system, so she moved back to her home town. It was during this time that she became engaged to John Wilson Conner of Vidalia. The two one-time school acquaintaces were married on July 16, 1994.

While at Montgomery County, Mrs. Conner’s Family and Consumer Sciences presented a FACS project at the National Convention in Los Angeles, California. The project won the national championship at the convention. She was also very active in the Vidalia First Baptist Church and her Pairs and Spares Sunday school class.

After a vacation to Banff Springs in Alberta, Canada, in 2013, Mrs. Conner was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells that can cause fractures. She suffered several fractures, including a break of her humerus that required a partial shoulder replacement, 7 compression fractures of her vertebrae, 4 broken ribs, and a fracture in her hip. Several years of chemo treatments, surgery, and a stem cell transplant followed. Treatments at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute and Meadows Cancer Center in Vidalia consisted of several chemo drugs and multiple transfusions of blood and platelets. Barbara and John both fought this cancer together. Trips to Emory for treatments were combined with shopping at Costco for John and at Talbot’s for Barbara.

They found a little restaurant in Brookhaven, “There,” which served great hamburgers, and a little restaurant in Peachtree Battle Shopping Center, “Cafe Lapin.” The couple still managed to find time to travel some. Vacations at Fort Myers Beach and Sanabel Island in Florida and to the 2018 Rose Bowl Parade and Football Game that saw Georgia beat Oklahoma in Pasadena, California, were great trips that helped fight the monotony of cancer treatments. Other exciting events in Barbara’s life were numerous trips to St. Simons Island for niece Elizabeth Harrell’s wedding, and also a local event, the wedding of niece Anna Baird. Recently, she was diagnosed with a second cancer, Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She passed away on July 18, 2021. Survivors include her husband, John Wilson Conner; brother, Jim Thompson; sister, Maranda Baird (Doug Baird); Stepmother, Gloria Duggan Thompson; sister-in-law, Ann Conner Harrell (Wallace Harrell); and several neices and nephews. The funeral was held at First Baptist Church in Vidalia on Saturday, July 24, starting at 11:00 a.m. A visitation was held on Friday night from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Ron Hall Funeral Home in Vidalia. The family would like to thank Dr. Sagar Lonial, one of the world’s most influential doctors in the treatment of Multiple Myeloma, Dr. Amelia Langston, the leukemia specialists at Winship, and Dr. Patrick Byrne, Dr. Stephen Tiley, and Dr. Jeffrey Hoy of Meadows Cancer Center in Vidalia.

Others who were essential to Barbara’s treatment included John Conner’s first cousin, Sally Montgomery. Sally, a retired Nurse Practitioner at Emory, helped immensely with Barbara’s treatment.

Ronald V. Hall

FUNERAL HOME

‘Memories, of a Lifetime of Love’

Full Paid Obituary

Mrs. Barbara Conner