Barbara White

Barbara White, 69, of Robinson, IL, died on September 27, 2026, at Crawford Memorial Hospital in Robinson. She was born in Robinson on November 16, 1956, to Oral and Betty (Hall) Utterback, and Robinson was her home for every year in between. She grew up here, attended Robinson High School, and was still a young girl in those hallways when life came calling a little earlier than planned. It came in the form of a draft notice. John White was headed into the service, and neither he nor Barbara was interested in waiting until he got back. So instead of putting the wedding off, they moved it up. Barbara and John were married on December 23, 1972, and they stayed married for more than half a century. They were young and didn't have much, but they had love and a willingness to work, and Barbara spent the rest of her life making good on both.

And make good she did. For thirty years, she worked at Tempco as a sawyer, cutting windows for replacement frames during the week. On weekends, she waited tables at the Moose, and she did that for well over twenty years. Between the two, she worked all the time. She worked to provide for her family. And she didn't quit until her body finally gave out. But Barbara never let work have all of her. When the shifts were over, she and John headed back to the Moose, not to wait tables, but to dance, and they did that for years.

Fridays belonged to Barbara. She got off work at 10:30 in the morning, and soon after, her best friend, Mindy, would come over. The two of them would sit with their feet in the pool and a beverage in hand, watching Johnny and Cassie play, and let the week behind them drift away. And when they wanted an excuse to spend a whole day together, she and Mindy found one at the river. The little fishing they did there was mostly an excuse, and that may have been the only time Barbara ever needed one. The rest of her life, she simply said what she meant. She was, after all, the most outspoken person in her family and was never once afraid to let her mind be known. She could certainly be ornery, and she seemed to enjoy it. But Barbara was just as quick to laugh, to tease, and to love, and the people who knew her best understood that all of it came from the same place: a heart that belonged, first and last, to her family.

And no one had a bigger claim on that heart than her grandchildren. Barbara had a heavy hand in raising them, and she did it with a child's sense of wonder. Forts went up. Whole make-believe worlds came to life. Long before any of them knew the word, she was handing them their imagination. She went by G-Ma to some and Grandma to others, but as the grandkids grew, most of them settled on simply "G." As far as G was concerned, family also included a couple of members who never said a word. Those two were her kitty, Fufu, and her dog, Daisy. Barbara loved them both, but she and Fufu shared something special. The two of them just seemed to understand each other, like a pair of kindred spirits who didn't need words to get their point across.

Barbara spoke her mind. She always had. But her heart did its talking another way. It worked until her body gave out, so that her family would never know want. It kept dancing with John long after the shifts were over, so that their marriage would never lose its rhythm. It spent long afternoons with Mindy by the pool and down at the river, so that a friendship could grow into something like family. It built make-believe worlds, so that her grandkids would grow up knowing how to dream. She loved her people. She didn't have to say it. She lived it.

Barbara leaves behind the people she loved: her husband of more than fifty-three years, John White (Robinson, IL); her daughter, Cassie White (Robinson, IL); her grandchildren, Trevor & Kendall Hill (Charleston, IL), Conner & Tara White (Fort Stewart, GA), Kierstin White & Luke Hatfield (Lawrenceville, IL), and Johnna Hill (Charleston, IL); her great-grandchildren, Crue White and Oakley Hatfield; her sisters, Mary Meek (Robinson, IL) and Donna Sullivan (Robinson, IL); her brother, Jerry Utterback (Robinson, IL); as well as several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Oral & Betty (Hall) Utterback; her son, Johnny White; and her sisters, Ruth Rich, Connie Utterback, and Jeannie Currie.

It was Barbara's wish to be cremated without public services. The Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson is assisting the family at this time.