Barb Gillespie of Freeport was born on October 16th, 1934 to Herbert and Dorothy Schadle. She died on April 8th, 2026. She lived her entire life in Freeport, IL. She attended St. Joseph Elementary School and graduated from Aquin High School. She attended Mt. St. Clare in Clinton IA and Northern Illinois University.

She worked at Micro Switch until she married Joe (Dodo) Gillespie on October 22, 1955, the love of her life. They had 3 children, Terri (Nory), Newberry, Tim (Robin) Gillespie and Julie (Doug) Duncan. She had 9 grandchildren, Ryan (Beth) Newberry, Paul (Nicky) Newberry, Erik (Shay) Aalund, Danny (Gina) Newberry, Nate (Nikki) Aalund, Lindsay (Colin) Murdock, Sean (Sarai) Gillespie, Katie Gillespie, Jackie Gillespie and 20 Great Grandchildren.

Barb Worked for 26 years for Freeport School District in the transportation and administration office until she retired in 1995.

After retiring, Barb and Joe spent several winter months in Florida enjoying their Freeport friends in the Ft. Myers & Naples area.

She enjoyed sewing and baking cookies for her grandkids and attended countless ballgames and wrestling matches for the grandkids.

She belonged to St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Provena Auxiliary. She also enjoyed feeding birds, especially yellow finches and cardinals.

Barb was proceeded in death by her husband Joe, her parents, 2 granddaughters, Jackie and Katie Gillespie, 2 brothers in law Jim Gillespie and his wife Betty and Alfred Gillespie and his wife Delores.

Visitation will be on Friday April 17, 2026 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church at 9:30 AM, followed by funeral mass at 11:00 AM

A memorial has been established.