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- BARBARA & FAMILY
Barbara Evans Fleischauer is an attorney, state delegate, mother, wife, daughter, small business owner, outdoor enthusiast, and community volunteer. She is married to Bob Bastress, a Professor at WVU's College of Law. Bob and Barbara live on the Evans family farm on Baker's Ridge. The Evans family has resided in Monongalia County since the 1700s. Bob and Barbara have two children. Sarah attends Smith College in Massachusetts and Rob works as an attorney for a law firm in Charleston.
Barbara is a 1982 graduate of the WVU College of Law. She received her undergraduate degree from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. She also studied a year at the University of Stockholm in Sweden. In 1994, she was first elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates. She is currently serving her eighth, two-year term as a Delegate.
Barbara's maternal grandfather, Eugene Evans, was raised on the Evans Farm in Morgantown and graduated from WVU. Like many West Virginians, Barbara's grandfather went out of state to get a job, first in the steel mills and later as a teacher in the Pittsburgh school system. Delegate Fleischauer's mother, Eleanor Evans Fleischauer, was a major influence in her life. Eleanor attended Antioch College where she met and sang with Coretta Scott King. The struggles of the King family, and their fight for social justice had much to do with Barbara's moral education.
Barbara's mother returned to college to complete her degree when the last of her four children was settled in elementary school, graduating from college the same year as her two sons graduated from high school. Eleanor found her first post-college job, helping women on welfare get ready for the labor market in a Great Society program, to be very meaningful. She loved her next job, working with patients at a mental hospital, but died in 1976 from the same type of deadly brain tumor as Ted Kennedy.
Barbara's father, Fred Fleischauer, was the first in his immediate family to graduate from high school or college. He went to MIT, became an engineer and college professor, and eventually started his own company to launch his inventions, obtaining 52 patents. He and Eleanor were involved in starting a church, the North Hills Unitarian Church located outside of Pittsburgh, which is still going strong.
After Eleanor's death, Fred married Jean Benkert, a school psychologist. The couple lived happily in Pittsburgh, but in 2005, Fred had several falls, followed by surgeries and periods of confinement in hospitals and nursing homes. After months of battling various bureaucracies, Barbara's stepmother, Jean, was finally successful in bringing Fred home. Through Jean's hard work and Pennsylvania's quality community services, Fred was able to spend his last years at home - he died in February of 2009.
Seeing all that her father went through, as well as the benefit of the good services he received, Barbara became even more inspired to continue fighting for increased funding for in-home services for the disabled and elderly in West Virginia. Barbara is proud to have helped secure over $40 million dollars in additional money for in-home services for seniors in West Virginia.
Barbara's two aunts and her uncle, Gerald Gardner, were all involved in a landmark legal case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court and changed the law. Want ads in newspapers in our country are no longer allowed to be separated into jobs for men and jobs for women as a result of their efforts. Barbara has worked on many women's rights issues during her legislative career, including the Equal Pay for Equal Work for State Employees Act, which she authored. She continues to serve as a member of West Virginia's Equal Pay Commission.
In addition to nursing her father in Pittsburgh during his last years, Barbara traveled back and forth to Pittsburgh to help care for her Uncle Gerrie, who died of leukemia in July 2009, and her Aunt JoAnn, who died in February 2010 from complications of dementia and diabetes.
Barbara has two siblings - a sister, Nancy, who lives outside of San Francisco with two children, and a brother, Max, also with two kids, who lives in Los Angeles. Barbara's brother Mark, who had four children and seven grandchildren, committed suicide in August, 2008.
It has been a difficult couple of years for Barbara and her family. One very pleasant exception was the marriage of Bob and Barbara's son Rob, in September 2009, to Blair Malken. Rob and Blair met and fell in love when they each served as law clerks for different federal judges in Charleston. They bought a home in Charleston, but attend as many WVU football and basketball games as possible.
More good news: On February 2, 2012, Blair and Rob had their first child, Arlo Robert Bastress. Barbara and Bob are thrilled to be grandparents!
Starting a private law practice in Morgantown in 1983, Barbara served from 1987-1991 as General Counsel for District 31 of the United Mine Workers of America. She also worked part-time as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division for the State of West Virginia. Her law office is currently located in the Monongahela Building in downtown Morgantown.
Members of Barbara's family served in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I and World War II. One of her proudest assignments is being Co-Chair of the Select Joint Interim Committee on Veterans, which has concentrated on ensuring that the state does everything possible to assist veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On the Evans family farm, where they live, Bob and Barbara have a large vegetable garden. Bob has become an avid canner - his specialties include marinara and hot pepper sauces. Both Barbara and Bob love to cook, and both are avid readers.
Barbara and Bob remain active in community and state organizations. Bob was President of the West Virginia Humanities Council and has served on the local Legal Services Board for over twenty years. Barbara is currently a Board member on several boards, including Mylan Puskar Health Right, Valley Health Care, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, Monongalia County Read Aloud and the WVU National Youth Sports Program. She is an active member of Morgantown Rotary, the Stewartstown Community, Education and Outreach Service (CEOS) and the WVU Campus Club.
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