Barbara Josephine Gruber
Services: 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 3, Cantlon Otterness Funeral Home of Buffalo. Burial in Mission Ridge Cemetery. Visitation: 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
Bro. Loren Dryer will officiate. Online condolences can be made at www.cantlonotterness.com.
Escorts are Gerald Sutton, Stephen Sutton, Howard Sutton, David Sutton, Ricky Gruber and Randy Swanigan. Honorary escorts are Daniel Sutton, Johnny Sutton and Andy Mullen.
Barbara Josephine (Sutton) Gruber, 72, was born Jan. 31, 1943, in Blythe, Calif., the daughter of Glenn and Ruby (Hodges) Sutton. She died May 30, 2015, at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.
She found the Lord dear to her soul as a young girl at Olive Point Southern Baptist Church in Preston.
She was united in marriage with Alfred Lee “Buddy” Gruber on April 12, 1964, at Mission Ridge Baptist Church in Urbana.
After a brief stay in Wichita, Kan., she and Buddy moved to their home in Urbana, where they raised their seven children and took an active role in the lives of many others.
She enjoyed sewing and reading.
After the sudden death of her husband in 1989 and five children still in the home, she went to work to take care of the needs of the family.
She attended school at Vatterott College where she earned a medical coding and billing degree. Once completing college she did not use the degree, but went to work at Key Industries in Buffalo, later becoming Production Products where she retired in 2006.
She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers: Glen Sutton Jr. and Charles Sutton; and her husband, Buddy.
Survivors include seven children: Barbara Jackson, Springfield, Sandra and husband, Jim Heppler, Camdenton, Darrell and wife, Jill Gruber, Buffalo, Lisa and husband, Chuck Summers, Tunas, Scott Gruber, Lake of the Ozarks, Dennis and wife, Karen Gruber, Urbana, and Alicia Gruber, of the home; two sisters: Bernita Smith, Wheatland, and Opal Swanigan, Urbana; 17 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and other family members and many friends who will all truly miss her.
