Barbara Carol Sowards

Barbara (Borstad) Sowards, a 48-year Las Vegas resident, passed away on September 6, 2025. She was 81.

Barbara was born June 27, 1944, in Madison, Wisconsin. One of Barbara's favorite stories was about her birth. She was born at 11:57 a.m., and the doctor said that she came into the world just in time for lunch.

She graduated from Madison East High School in 1962. She married Jon Schumacher in 1965, and they had two children.

The family moved to Las Vegas in 1977. They lived in Pahrump for a few years before Barbara and Jon divorced and she returned to Las Vegas, where she married Richard Sowards.

Barbara worked in several clerical and secretarial positions, including at the Nevada Test Site.

She and Richard were avid travelers of the American West, where they fished, visited family and enjoyed natural and cultural attractions. Barbara had a fondness for turquoise jewelry and Native American art. She was talented in the crafts of quilting and crochet.

After Richard's passing in 2005, Barbara embarked on a series of cruises that took her all over the world. She also was actively involved as a student and course coordinator with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Barbara is survived by her sister, Christine Dash; sons, Geoffrey Schumacher and Edward Schumacher; stepchildren Patricia Sue Leavitt, Ann Reber and Steven Sowards; 19 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her stepdaughter, Linda Segal.