Barbara Aszman, 89, of Grinnell, Iowa, died on June 10, 2017, at the Mayflower Health Care Center in Grinnell. A memorial service will be held 10:30 a.m., Saturday, August 26, 2017, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Grinnell with Rev. Kathryn Roys, pastor of the church, officiating. She was buried with her husband and Scouts ashes at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Chester, Illinois on June 14, 2017. The Smith Funeral Home of Grinnell is handling arrangements. Memorials may be directed to PALS or to Grinnell Regional Hospice and sent in care of the Smith Funeral Home, P.O. Box 368, Grinnell, Iowa 50112. Barbara was born on August 29, 1927, in Plainwell, Michigan to Isabel Rebecca (Fry) and David Conrad Ashley. By the time she was seven, the family had moved to Dixon, Illinois, where an exceptionally progressive teacher taught her primary school pupils music appreciation. This, together with the voice, piano, and tap dancing lessons provided by her parents, awakened in her a life-long love of music. She participated in the high school musicals and sang solos in nearly every church in Dixon. She was also active in sports and bicycled miles with her friends to visit state parks in the area. Her love of books often tempted her to stay up past her bedtime, reading by the light of the streetlamp outside her window. Just before her junior year, her parents moved to a house on the Rock River in nearby Grand Detour where Barbara enjoyed rowing and ice skating on the river. Barbara wanted very much to go to college, but family finances dictated otherwise. She was working as a statistical typist at Northern Illinois Gas Co. when Anthony John (Jack) Aszman returned from serving in Europe with the U.S. Army and came to visit his aunt, who lived next door. Barb and Jack were married on May 31, 1947, in Chicago. Jack was working for the Chicago Boys' Clubs and she joined him in working with the boys, who amused them when they spoke Polish to keep secrets. They had three daughters: Barbara Anne, Lynn Anne, and Sue Anne. Barbara's first priority was always spending time with her children: reading and singing, playing games, baking cookies, making valentines, weaving potholders, and sewing doll clothes. She sang in her church choir and enjoyed canoeing with her family. Eventually she went back to work to ensure that her children would go to college. It was never "if" you go to college; it was always "when"! She was a fountain of advice and instruction for all sorts of problems with schoolwork and would have been an excellent teacher. All three girls graduated from college and became a Spanish teacher, a veterinarian, and a soil scientist. Barbara worked at Lyon-Healy when it was still a full-service music store and then did secretarial work for various companies until she settled at Allstate's central office. There, she sang in the Allstate Choir, which used to perform in the nursing homes in the area. Barbara loved animals and taught her children by example that all animals deserve the best of care. At one time there were seventeen turtles in the house, mostly ailing ones that had belonged to people who had not known how to care for them. If they were too weak to eat by themselves, she fed them by hand. She helped her children rescue injured birds and homeless cats and dogs. When a co-worker told her she was going to return a puppy with kennel cough to the place where she'd purchased him, Barbara begged her to let her have him, because she was certain the dog would just be put to sleep. Barbara learned to administer the injections that saved him and he became "Partner", one of Jack's favorite dogs. Her last dog was a runaway terrier mix found huddled by the door of a convenience store while she was on a road trip. It was definitely not a convenient time to take on a stray, but the alternative was the pound, so she bundled the dog, fleas and all, into the car. Scout and Barbara bonded long before she located the owner, who was only too happy to let her deal with the habitual escape artist. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother David, her husband, her daughter Lynn, and faithful Scout. She is survived by her daughters, Sue Anne Aszman and Barbara Aszman Stone; her son-in-law, John David Stone; her grandson, Neil Emrys Stone, and his wife, Ashley; her granddaughter, Sophia Nerissa Stone-Holmbeck, and her husband, Andrew; and four great-granddaughters: Cora Demory and Isla Harper Stone and Amara Lily and Ariadne Lys Holmbeck.