Esther J. Girraputo Barnes Shelton passed away March 17, 2024, at the age of 92. Visitation will be 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 21, at St. Gabriel Archangel Catholic Church, where the Rosary will be prayed at 5:00 p.m. The Funeral Mass will be 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 22, at St. Gabriel Church, followed by burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Esther was born September 30, 1931, to the late Vito and Josephine (Marrone) Giarraputo. She graduated from Northeast High School and attended Center Business College. She enjoyed music, especially opera, and studied and sang opera in high school where she also made a record. After her marriage to Jesse G. Barnes and having raised the first five of her six children, she worked outside the home at American Polled Herford. Years after the death of Jesse, she remarried and along came her sixth child, Jennifer.

Esther continued to work in the business world and for her final 22 years until retirement she worked at AT&T. Once retired, however, she spent the next 12 years volunteering at the Heart of America Indian Center in a professional / clerical status and worked with and met many wonderful people, learned to speak and write the Lakota language, and visited a reservation or two. She continued to be involved in volunteering for the National Archives in Kansas City and later was a member of the board of directors at North Brighton Townhomes.

She so enjoyed traveling and did some before and after retirement to Italy twice, where she visited Girraputo family, as well as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel, and many states here in the U.S. She was a member of St. Gabriel Archangel Parish and had resided north of the river from 1976 until her passing.

Her family includes her siblings: brothers, Melcher (deceased) and wife Virginia, Robert and wife JoAnn, Steve and wife Mary (deceased); sister, Bertha Girraputo; her children: Vito G. Barnes (deceased), David R. Barnes (deceased), Stephen E. Barnes and wife Patty (deceased), Mary Barnes Law and husband Robert, Mark A. Barnes (deceased) and Patti Goetting, Jennifer J. Shelton and Roy Butler; stepdaughter Jessie Ann Barnes Davis Thompson and David; stepson Richard Barnes (deceased); several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren; her godchildren Ashley, Clementina, Gasper, Jude, Vito and Scarlet Ferraro; and many nieces, nephews great-nieces and great-nephews.

An amazingly strong woman, raising six children mostly by herself with no instructions on how to complete such a task, she was always there for all of us, each being different with different needs in growing up. How she knew what to do and say at some of the most important times in our lives I'll never know.

All who knew her, loved her. She will be sorely missed by many. She now is in heavenly peace with our Lord God, her mother and father, and all family who has passed before her.

Condolences may be offered at www.passantinobros.com