Barbara Wingate Draudt Molyneaux

After nine months of camping in a field at Miami University in Oxford, living in a trailer with her husband and baby, but without a bathroom, Barbara Molyneaux arrived in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1946 to start her new life.

A stranger to Oberlin, and soon with a second baby, Barbara made friends by joining adult groups such as the Junior (women’s) Forum, First (Congregational) Church, and clubs to play bridge. Within a few years, she made her mark on the town as “Barb” at Watson Hardware, where she and her husband, the late Glenn I. “Jim” Molyneaux, worked together to own and manage the store for nearly 50 years.

Barbara Wingate Draudt Molyneaux, 94, died February 7, 2017, at The AbbeWood, a senior living community in Elyria.

Barbara, a woman of small stature who seldom weighed more than 100 pounds, said that in the beginning of her time at the hardware store in the 1950s, gruff men would arrive to order plumbing supplies, emphasizing such words as nipple, male and female ends, joints and unions. But soon they gave up on intimidation and the word byplay became friendly, with lots of smiles, she said, “because I never let any of that get to me. My husband had warned me.”

          Living through the 1930s Depression (she was born in Champaign, Illinois in 1922) and World War II were far more difficult than anything she faced at the hardware store. Barbara and Jim, both students at Miami University, were married in 1943 as Jim headed off to war. Barbara graduated from the Business School at Miami, with honors in 1944, then, while her husband served in the US Navy, she went home to live with her parents in Marion, Indiana. For some months she went to Fort Pierce, Fla, to work for a butcher so she could spend some time with Jim in his training, before he went to sea as head of US Marine landing craft, prepared for the invasion of Japan in 1945. After the war, Jim came home, and they decided, even with a new baby, to go back to Miami so Jim could finish his college degree. Because Miami offered no housing for married students, they bought the tiny house trailer, camping out with several other couples who had similar needs.

Oberlin was Jim’s family home, and in late 1946 he took over management of Watson Hardware, which was started by his grandfather, Miles J. Watson in the 1880s.

Barbara and Jim worked hard and lived full lives during 65 years of marriage, raising three children (all of whom worked many years at the store), joined and/or led local civic and recreation groups including Suburban dance club, the American Legion, and Oak Street Athletic club. They lived many weekends in a cottage they bought at Oberlin Beach Association, boated on Lake Erie, and in the later stages of their lives played golf at the Elyria County Club and at their retirement condo in Fort Myers, Fla.

Barbara liked to work at the hardware store, to read, to dance, and to socialize with family and friends. She did not like cooking, sewing, washing clothes or ironing. She loved the piano, which she played with a flourish by (an amazingly adept) ear, as she could not read music. She always played in the key of F, says her daughter Ann Garvelink, a music teacher in Elyria.

 In addition to her daughter Ann (husband, Richard), Barbara is survived by her sons David (wife, Fran Golden) of Cleveland and John (wife, Ann Stephens) of Glenview, Ill, eight grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

Services will be Sunday at 4 p.m. at First Church of Oberlin. Donations may be made “in memory of Barbara Molyneaux” to Crossroads Hospice Charitable Foundation, 9775 Rockside Rd. #270, Valley View, OH 44125

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