Barbara Jane Rogers Sanders, 89, passed away peacefully with her family by her side on April 4, 2024 after an 8-year battle with dementia.

Barbara was born December 26, 1934 in Hanover, NH to Ruth (Pushee) Rogers and Robert Duncan Rogers of Lyme, NH. She attended grade schools in Fairlee, VT, Thetford, VT and Lyme, NH and graduated from Hanover High School with the class of 1952 and then graduated from Keene State College with a Bachelor’s degree in Home Economics in 1956. She married Richard Miller Sanders of Needham, MA in February 1956 after a 7-year committed wait and together they had two children: Edward Richard Sanders (deceased) and Deborah Jane Sanders.

She taught Home Economics at Hanover High School from 1957-1958, before moving to Illinois in 1960, during which she served three years as the county extension agent for nutrition in the southern town of Vienna. Barbara later went on to finish her dual Master’s degree in Nutrition and Rehabilitation in 1978 and her thesis was published as a booklet entitled: “A Cookbook Mate for the Blind and the Sighted”. Upon returning to New Hampshire, she taught Culinary Arts at White Mountain Regional High School for 19 years and retired in 1997.

She was certified as a Culinary Educator by the American Culinary Federation and became a member of the American Academy of Chefs (approximately 900 men and 30 women) and was the first women to serve on the board of the academy. She twice won the national gold medal for her recipes from the American Dairy Association, and was one of 40 American chefs to represent the United States at the World Cooks Tour for Hunger in South Africa in 1992 where 47 nations competed to raise money for childhood hunger. She won another gold medal there.

In 1974 Barbara and her husband started an upbreeding program for Simmental cattle before moving their Makanda, IL farm to Monroe, NH in 1977. Barbara selected all the sires for their seven, half-blood Simmental/Holsteins and was a certified breeder by ABS (she was often referred to by family as “our slippery sleeve”) and her bull calves always won at the university test stations either as most efficient and/or sold at the top dollar of the 70 entrants.

Barbara enjoyed many things, especially driving her Austin Healy Mk 1 Sprite (the frog) in Gymkhanas while living in North Carolina. She constantly won these events, beating all the male drivers many times even when driving against faster and far more expensive cars. She also enjoyed traveling and made a number of trips to Europe as well as Ireland, Denmark, South Africa and Israel. She also traveled extensively throughout the US and Canada.

Barbara competed in the luge and won two bronze medals; one national and one international in 1973 and a gold medal in the Seniors after the Age of 50.

She was predeceased by her son Edward and a brother Reginal Rogers. Barbara is survived by her husband Richard; daughter Deborah Sanders-Dame and her husband Brian; granddaughter Leilani Heath and her husband Roy; grandson Andre Sanders and his wife Natashia; great-grandson Brody Heath and great-granddaughter Henley Sanders.

Services are being planned for a later date.

 

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