Barb was born on Nov 13, 1941, to Donald and Clara (Holmes) Beenken, the youngest of eight children from this marriage. She graduated from Belmond High School, Belmond, Iowa, in 1960. She turned down a scholarship to college, choosing to marry Larry Harms following graduation. The couple had two children, Kent and Lori. Following a divorce, Barb would eventually marry Carl Ohrt in 1992.

Barb was a natural listener and nurturer. Even as a small child she cared for her mother while she was ill and for younger siblings when her father remarried following her mother's death. She would later become a daycare teacher at Rockwell Day Care, touching the lives of many children with her nurturing spirit over the course of 20 years.

She loved to garden, claiming yellow roses as her favorite. She was most happy when her family could gather around her, which of course meant that she loved holidays, especially Christmas. Perhaps it was her love of Christmas that influenced her hobby of collecting snowmen. She also enjoyed square dancing and attending her grandchildren's activities.

She is survived by her husband, Carl of Cedar Rapids; son Kent and wife Jane of Cedar Rapids; daughter Lori and her husband Jeff Queck, of Sanborn; her sister Velmie Sabottka of Roberts, WI; her brother Alan of Clarion, Iowa; half-siblings Betty Beenken, Catherine Hand, Denise Beenken, Donna Dittmer and Rick Beenken, along with numerous step children and grandchildren. 

Barb was born on Nov 13, 1941, to Donald and Clara (Holmes) Beenken, the youngest of eight children from this marriage. She graduated from Belmond High School, Belmond, Iowa, in 1960. She turned down a scholarship to college, choosing to marry Larry Harms following graduation. The couple had two children, Kent and Lori. Following a divorce, Barb would eventually marry Carl Ohrt in 1992.

Barb was a natural listener and nurturer. Even as a small child she cared for her mother while she was ill and for younger siblings when her father remarried following her mother's death. She would later become a daycare teacher at Rockwell Day Care, touching the lives of many children with her nurturing spirit over the course of 20 years.

She loved to garden, claiming yellow roses as her favorite. She was most happy when her family could gather around her, which of course meant that she loved holidays, especially Christmas. Perhaps it was her love of Christmas that influenced her hobby of collecting snowmen. She also enjoyed square dancing and attending her grandchildren's activities.

She is survived by her husband, Carl of Cedar Rapids; son Kent and wife Jane of Cedar Rapids; daughter Lori and her husband Jeff Queck, of Sanborn; her sister Velmie Sabottka of Roberts, WI; her brother Alan of Clarion, Iowa; half-siblings Betty Beenken, Catherine Hand, Denise Beenken, Donna Dittmer and Rick Beenken, along with numerous step children and grandchildren.