Barbara Arendsen

A cool, pine-scented wind swept through the northwest Vegas mountains on Monday, September 20, 2021, and Barbara Arendsen rode off on it. Whether she traveled by Hobie Cat, broom, or hot-air balloon, we cannot be sure. The full moon that night cast churning, obscuring shadows on the ground and around her. The sound of flutes and drums muffled her flight into the void.

Barbara, Mom, Mumsy, Kiki, Barbie Doll, Doctor Arendsen was born on July 16, 1943, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her brothers George, Frank, and Bill Dickey. She was a spirit of huge color, fragrance, texture, and taste, but of a low and soothing volume.

Barbara constructed a world around her filled with kindness and purpose. As a Ph. D Jungian psychologist trained at the Pacifica Institute in Carpinteria, CA, she counseled in the healing of deep wounds and guided the artful re-composition of healthy, whole beings. Her personal trappings, each piece of furniture, handcrafted bowl, painting on the wall, book on the shelf (thousands of them) reflected a feminine core and a Southern charm and style, all firmly rooted in the spirit world. Barbara was one of the few female mental health professionals invited to provide care to the people of the Pueblos near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Like most great souls, Barbara was a balance of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Her garden always bloomed and fruited mightily. She grew up in a community of avid balloonists, and eagerly joined her family in flight. She read and chatted by firelight and hinted about dancing naked in the moonlight. She swam, sailed, and, as a young and smiling woman, rode on top of the shoulders of a tall and muscular slalom water-skier (her greatly missed ex, Richard Arendsen).

Barbara was a Mother and Earth Mother. She could simultaneously be Momma Bear and Mary Poppins. She was a gentle, nurturing, and kind grandmother, who lovingly called both Dylan and Jaxon her “darlings”. She was a sister who laughed, cried, and cheered with her brothers, sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews. Always a blessing, never a burden, master of a thousand recipes, quick to give support, slow to make a decision, educated, wise, beautiful, and infinitely charming - - Barbara we celebrate your every living day and your journey yet to come.

Barbara Ann Arendsen is survived by her two daughters, Heather Baker (Steve Baker) and Samantha Arendsen (Michael Baron), her brothers, Frank Dickey and Bill Dickey, her sisters-in-law, Niki Dickey and Carol Dickey, and her two grandchildren, Dylan Baker and Jaxon Arendsen Laking.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Barbara’s honor to Claire’s Place Foundation at:

www.clairesplacefoundation.org/donate