Barbara J Waggie

Barbara J. Waggie, age 92, of Rochester, Minnesota and formerly of Newell, Iowa died April 8, 2026 in Rochester. Funeral services will take place Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. at Bethel Baptist Church in Newell. Burial will be in the Varina Cemetery. Visitation will be Friday, April 24, 2026 from 5-7:00 p.m. at the CHURCH in Newell. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements. Barbara Jean Degner was born on October 9, 1933, on a farm in Newell, Iowa, to Fred W. and Arvilla Degner. Her life may have started during the Great Depression, but this family had wonderful times. Her older brother was Freddie. Other children soon followed, Ruth (Paulson), Robert and David. They all enjoyed a farm life, growing up just outside of Varina. Barb participated on the Varina High School basketball team. She and her sister Ruth were inseparable, and even though life took Barb away from Iowa for a number of years, whenever she and Ruth were back together it was like they had never been apart. She was united in marriage to John Walter Beilby after graduation in the summer of 1951 and the couple settled in Plover, where the water tower there dripped on Barb’s garden and helped produce the largest plants in town. Barb’s first daughter, Susan, did not survive childbirth. John was recalled back into the Navy during the Korean conflict so the couple settled in the San Francisco area and had their second child, David, while there in 1954. After leaving the Navy, the couple settled in Phoenix, Arizona, where two more sons were born, Stephen in 1956 and Douglas in 1963. While pregnant with her fourth son, Larry, a divorce occurred in 1965 and Barb and the boys landed back home in Newell, Iowa. As a single mom, Barb was driven to get a college education and graduated from Buena Vista College in 1970. She was a teacher in the Albert City-Truesdale school system for 25 years until her retirement in 1996. Hundreds of kids can claim tutelage from Barb. In May of 1984 Barb had a second chance at love and married Roger Waggie and returned to living on a farm now that all four of her boys had graduated and moved away, and Roger’s daughter Kim was finishing up advanced degrees. In 1996 the couple remodeled a house in Storm Lake and left farming. They settled there for 20 years before taking up residence in independent living in Spencer. In 2019, Roger and Barb moved to Rochester, MN to be close to son Stephen and near the Mayo Clinic for health reasons. Barb is preceded in death by her siblings except her brother David. David has said Barb was like a mother to him. She is survived by her husband Roger in Rochester, her four sons, David along with his wife Lisa in Wausau, WI; Stephen in Rochester, Doug and his wife Jennifer in Grand Island, NE; and Larry and his wife Kim in Boyd, TX. She is also survived by her step-daughter Kim Waggie and her partner Leanna in Mt. Vernon, WA. Barb boasts eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

Barbara J Waggie

October 9, 1933 - April 8, 2026