MEET BARBARA - continued
Barbara's mother, Eleanor Evans Fleischauer, was a major influence in her life. Eleanor died of a brain tumor when Barbara was in her 20's. Eleanor attended Antioch College where she met and sang with Coretta Scott King. The struggles of the King family, and their fight for social justice, had much to do with Barbara's moral education.
Barbara's father, Fred Fleischauer, now 85 years old, was the first in his family to graduate from high school or college. He went to MIT and became an engineer, college professor and started his own company to launch his inventions, obtaining 52 patents.
2005 was a traumatic year for Fred, with numerous major surgeries and confinements in hospitals and nursing homes. Barbara and her stepmother, Jean, battled for months with various bureaucracies to bring Fred home. They were finally successful. Fred is much happier and steadily improving and Jean has been able to arrange physical therapy, daycare and other services in the community. Barbara's past efforts to increase funding for in-home services for the disabled and elderly have now turned into a much more personal battle.
Barbara was named after her mother's two sisters, Barbara and JoAnn. Both of them were deeply involved in the women's movement, inspiring Barbara to follow in their footsteps. Barbara has three siblings - a sister, Nancy, in San Francisco, a brother, Max, in Los Angelos and a brother, Mark, in Indiana.