Barbara Louise (Ormsby) Lay

Barbara passed peacefully on 8/22/2026 and is now reunited with those she has missed so dearly for so many years, daughter Lizabeth and son Todd, both who left us all too young.

Barbara spent most of her youth in Gardner KS and graduated in GHS in 1956. Her father’s job took the family across the country in her younger years to Texas, Colorado and California and eventually back to Gardner.

After graduating, she attended Emporia State and later UMKC and JCCC. She worked for the local phone company in Gardner in her younger years and later found her way back to the phone business and retired from Sprint.

Barbara spent her retirement years enjoying a variety of TV shows including reality, history, spiritual, game shows, KC Royals, and KC Chiefs. She was an avid reader with a constant stream of books coming through the mail and would finish a book within a day or two to then turnaround to start in on the next one.

Barbara is proceeded in death by her parents Ike and Edna (Tremayne) Ormsby, brother and sister-in-law Mason and Diana Ormsby, daughter Lizabeth Lay, and son Todd Lay. She is survived by her son Doug Lay of Overland Park, nieces Kim Ormsby Daffin of Houston Texas, Heather Ormsby Mellor (Matthew) of Kansas City MO, and four grand nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent in the memory of her brother and daughter to The Brain Injury Association of Kansas https://biaks.org 

or in the memory of her son to the Kansas City Suicide Awareness and Prevention Program. https://www.kcsapp.org

There will be no services per Barbara’s wishes and inurnment at Resurrection Cemetery 8300 Quivira Rd, Lenexa KS 66215.