Barbara Bremmer-Price, July 28, 1936 January 2, 2010

Barbara Bremmer-Price passed away at the age of 73 on Saturday, January 2, 2010, in Stockton, California, due to congestive heart failure.
Barbara Amy Bisler was born on July 28, 1936, in San Francisco, California, and grew up there with siblings Paul, Larry, Robert and Mary. Barbaras mother, Doris, was a Registered Nurse and had relocated to Lone Pine from San Francisco, accepting a position at Southern Inyo Hospitals surgical center in 1964. At the time, Barbara was working at the Bank of America in San Francisco and struggling as an artist. She decided to accompany Doris to Lone Pine with her son Nicholas Anthony Sherman (Nick), and Barbara became a waitress at the Sportsman Caf where she met Robert (Bob) Bremmer. They formed a family expanding by one soon after with the birth of their daughter, Mary Louise Bremmer, in 1966.
No stranger to hard work, Barbara continued to wait tables, but she and Bob also had several entrepreneurial ventures over the next 17 years including a feed store, Mobil gas stations, and an Arabian horse breeding facility. In 1980, Bob successfully ran for County Supervisor and Barbara continued to work the graveyard shift at Lautens coffee shop. She cemented many close relationships there with a wide variety of people including rowdy cowboys after the bars closed and locals who just couldnt sleep, providing an open ear and sometimes personal counsel (whether they wanted it or not) to Deputies on the graveyard shift who stopped in for coffee. Of course, the Volunteer Fire Department and ambulance crew was a sure visit too after a late night run.
Barbara was close to many in Lone Pine and the Owens Valley. She volunteered enormous hours of her personal time for efforts to make Lone Pine a tourist destination and bring the community together with fun events that made residents happy. The rodeo grounds were utilized extensively with horse shows and gymkhanas that she organized. She led the local horse group and served as the Community Leader for the 4-H program for almost two decades, as well as being involved with the Lone Pine Saddle Club and horse organizations in Bishop over the years. She organized countless Christmas and Easter parades, golf tournaments, Halloween carnivals and Lilac Festivals. The Lilac Festival was a week-long event that included an Easter egg hunt, pet shows, donkey polo, donkey baseball, a parade, a queen contest and other fun things for the community to be involved with. She rescued numerous cats that were scheduled to be put to sleep and provided warm barns and afternoon buffets at their remote Lubken Canyon residence. Bob was not happy about having so many cats, so she had them delivered while Bob wasnt home. When Bob would ask where all the cats were coming from, she would answer with very wide eyes, Bob, I have no idea where theyre coming from. Bob and Barbara were together until Bobs death in 1988.
In the following years, Barbara quit waitressing and went to work for the County of Inyo (Public Works and Sheriffs Departments). She married Richard Price in 1990, but a heart attack caused his death shortly thereafter in 1994. She continued to organize events in her new working environment that brought people together in the workplace (potlucks, short gambling jaunts, Easter banquets and golf tournaments).
In 2002, Barbara retired and moved to Stockton to be closer to her son, Nick and his family. She resided at an assisted living facility where she rekindled her passion for art but also organized poker games. Although often bound to a scooter and an oxygen tank for mobility, she was in the process of planning a group cruise to Mexico the week of her passing.
Barbara is survived by her brothers, Paul, Larry and Robert Bisler, her sister, Mary Louise Houser. Her son, Nick Sherman and Son-in-law Ted Defriese, her daughter, Mary Louise Bremmer-Pritchard, Son-in-law Don Pritchard and her granddaughter, Candace Amy Pritchard.
Funeral services will be held for Barbara Bremmer-Price, on Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 10 a.m. at the Catholic Church in Lone Pine. A graveside service at the Mt. Whitney cemetery and reception at the Mt. Whitney Golf Course will follow. In lieu of flowers please send donations to the attention of Betty Humphrey, Inyo County Sheriffs Department, PO Drawer S, Independence CA 93526. Note Animal Shelter Facility on the memo line.

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