Mormon Mother of the Year

A mom for any occasion

By Carol Reeves

Ilene Barlow has seen practically everything, but the Mother of the Year never stops learning

Ilene Barlow is a talented musician, a longtime Hewlett-Packard employee and a two-time cancer survivor, but she believes her greatest accomplishment in life is being a mother.

With 10 children and 20 grandchildren, Barlow has hosted numerous birthday parties, attended countless athletic events and sat through far more recitals than most moms since she and her late husband, an engineer with HP, transferred from the Bay Area to Corvallis in 1976.

Recently Barlow was awarded the title Mother of the Year by the Oregon chapter of American Mothers Inc. One of her sons nominated her for the award, and winning it makes her eligible for the national title to be announced at AMI’s annual conference next month.

AMI is a 70-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the moral and spiritual foundations of families through mentoring programs, online resources and service projects, Barlow explained.

One of the things she hopes to share with other mothers in Oregon is “how important it is to constantly be in a learning mode through reading, teaching classes or learning from others.”

Active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a piano and organ teacher, Barlow was also a 4-H and Boy Scouts volunteer while her children were growing up.

All of the Barlow children attended Hoover Elementary School, Cheldelin Middle School and Crescent Valley High School. Now most of them have families of their own and have moved away, to Washington, Arizona and Hawaii. One daughter lives in Albany and one of her sons lives in Portland. Two others attend college in Idaho and Utah.

The key to being a good mother is “you have to really love being with your children,” Barlow says.

“I really don’t think this award is just about me. It’s about honoring all mothers. I just get to be a spokesman to promote the value of motherhood throughout the state of Oregon,” she said.

Carol Reeves covers religion for the Gazette-Times.

Ilene Barlow

Age: 62.

Residence: Corvallis.

Occupation: Change management coordinator at Hewlett-Packard.

Education: 1962 graduate of North Cache High School; attended Utah State University.

Family: Husband Elwood Barlow (deceased); five daughters and four sons, ages 23 to 39 (the couple’s oldest daughter, Rochelle, died from meningitis at age 17 in 1987); 20 grandchildren.

Misc.: Named Oregon’s Mother of the Year by American Mothers Inc.

http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/focus/afocus01_barlow.txt