Barbara Cooney exemplifies a life of service through the arts, the Society of the Sacred Heart and more. After earning a Bachelor of Arts at Maryville, she earned a master’s in English literature and a teaching certificate elsewhere. She went on to teach high school French and English for 15 years. Cooney also studied fine arts at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Missouri, where she taught an arts outreach program for senior citizens.
Cooney has received awards from the Missouri Arts Council and the Liberty Center Association for the Arts, and she exhibited her own artwork with lectures and workshops across Missouri. Twice winner of the Missouri State Fair Top Fifty, she has had two feature exhibits at the Kansas City Artists Coalition and a solo exhibit at State Fair Community College.
In service to her Sacred Heart Parish, Cooney has organized and taught religious classes as part of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; completed two terms as a member and chair of the Christian Education Commission; and served as a Sacred Heart School Board member. Cooney received a Sacred Heart Alumni Award in 2012 and, along with her husband, James, the Sacred Heart 2017 Hall of Fame Award.