Pitts, Barbara Avalon (Gilliam)

Barbara Avalon Pitts (Gilliam) died Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

She was a longtime resident of Arlington Heights, Ill., but moved to Marion, Iowa, in 2007. Avalon was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 28, 1919, to Vincent and Rebecca Gilliam. Not long after, her family moved to St. Louis. She attended Central Methodist College in Fayette, Mo., where she majored in English and History. One day while in line to buy books, she met fellow student Benjamin Randolph Pitts, and she seemed to have known immediately that he was “the one.” Upon graduating, Randy joined the U.S. Navy and they were wed on Halloween Day 1942, shortly before he shipped out to the South Pacific to be a gunnery officer on the USS South Dakota. During the war, she worked for McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis. Avalon loved animals and for many years raised and showed Persian cats.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Randy (1919-2000); brother, Steven Gilliam; and sister, Monica Sibley.

She is survived by her son, Terry Pitts (Kathy Hall) of Cedar Rapids and his two children, Rebecca and Jacob; her daughter, Pamela Jensen (Perry) of Unity, Wis. and her daughter, Dawn Schneider; and her sister, Martha Todd of St. Louis, Mo.

No local services are planned. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

The family wishes to acknowledge the wonderful staff and community of Summit Pointe, Marion, where Avalon lived happily for the past few years, and to the caring staff of Living Center West, where she had been recuperating after an illness.

Memorial gifts may be made to Assisi No-Kill Animal Foundation, P.O. Box 143, Crystal Lake, IL 60039-0143.

Online condolences may be left at under “obituaries.”

Published in The Gazette May 29, 2013.