Barbara B. Drake

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Barbara Fae (Bradley) Drake, 82, of South Bend, Indiana, died October 11 in the early morning. Barb now resides in Heaven with her Father, her Savior Jesus, her Comforter the Holy Spirit, and the saints of the ages.

Mrs. Drake had cared for scores of young children in her licensed day care home, Little Ducks Day Care, near the University of Notre Dame and then in her Mishawaka home, from 1982 until 2016.

She was born February 27, 1942, in Caro, Michigan, the daughter of E. Lorn and Ila Ruth (Humes) Bradley. While in high school in the late 1950s, she wrote high school sports news for her hometown weekly and high school newspapers. She graduated from Michigan State University, East Lansing, with a degree in journalism in 1965 and then returned to MSU for teaching certification. She taught eighth and ninth graders journalism and American history at Pattengill Junior High in Lansing from 1966 to 1971 and advised an award-winning student newspaper.

In the early 1970s, she worked as a reporter and copy editor for three years for Pioneer Press weekly newspapers in several North Shore suburbs near Chicago, and lived in Evanston, Illinois, where her husband, Tony, completed seminary graduate studies at Seabury Western Episcopal Seminary.

After living in Niles, Michigan, for a year, she moved to South Bend in 1975 and began what she called her most rewarding career, mother of her sons, John and Paul. In order to be a stay-at-home-mom, she established her licensed day care business in her home and took care of 10 or more children from other families along with her sons and their friends, who hung around for Kool-Aid, Lego projects, and the first video game system in the neighborhood.

She was a member of the Episcopal Church for 16 years and the Roman Catholic Church, at Saint Joseph South Bend and St. Pius parishes, since 1980. She was also a member of the People of Praise Christian Community since 1975. She spent her final years living in a suite at her son Paul’s house, and then at Wellbrooke of South Bend. In her final days, she had family members and many friends at her side, and received Last Rites.

Surviving are her sons, John, a former journalist and Capitol Hill staffer and now an attorney, his wife, Amy, in Granger, and Paul, an information security professional at the University of Notre Dame, and his wife Betsy, in South Bend. Also surviving are eleven grandchildren: Helena, Leo, Theo, Madonna, Veronica, Rex, and Sebastian; and Atticus, Norah, Tegegn, and Tiruye. Predeceasing Barbara are her brother and sister-in-law, Dennis and Marilyn Bradley, of Santee, California.

Visitation will be held Thursday, October 17, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., with a rosary at 6:30 p.m., at Kaniewski Funeral Home, 3545 N. Bendix Drive, in South Bend. St. Pius X Catholic Church, 52553 Fir Road, Granger, IN, will hold a viewing Friday, October 18, at 9:30 a.m., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Women’s Care Center in South Bend.

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