Barbara Bennell was an outgoing person who loved to help others, said her husband, Jim Bennell Sr.
“She loved having her own beauty shop, and it was a gorgeous shop,” he said. “Then she went into real estate, and was a top salesman when she did that.”
Barbara Bennell, 78, of Hobart, died Jan. 6. She had owned Barbara’s Beauty Shop in Lake Station and had been a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Valparaiso. She was a member of Bible Baptist Church, Portage. She was a 1952 graduate of East Gary High School.
The couple met when his business was across the street from her beauty shop, and they met at the local coffee shop. They were married for 38 years.
They loved traveling together, and had been around the world. They visited Biblical cities as well as historical sites when they traveled, he said.
“We took the Orient Express from Vienna to Budapest, and then to Prague,” he said. “We went to museums in Paris and spent five weeks in Mexico in a motor home.”
She loved history, and loved eating at local restaurants and shopping at local shops when she was on vacation, he said.
Bennell was a perfectionist, who had a particular way she liked to file things or fold things, her husband said.
“She had a way to do everything,” he said. “She was an honest, outgoing personable woman. We had a good marriage. I can’t complain a bit.”
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