Barbara “Barb” Jean Rapp, 73, of Great Falls, passed away on February 25, 2025. Barb was born on April 24, 1951, in Great Falls, to Rex and Jeanine Manuel of Fairfield, Montana. She attended Fairfield High School and graduated in 1969. She later went on to attend MSU-Billings for two years in the nursing program.
Shortly after high school, she married her first husband, Rich Readicker, and they had two sons, William and Jeremy. After their divorce, Barb ran into her old high school sweetheart, Russell Rapp, and in 1978 they were married, with Russ adopting the boys. As the boys got older, Barb decided that they should become foster parents. Over several years, they fostered dozens of children. In March of 1992 they were called to foster a newborn baby boy and after just a few months decided they needed to adopt him and add him to the family on a permanent basis. Three years later their adoption of Michael Rapp was finalized.
Barb worked many different jobs over her life from a grocery store, the State of Montana, paraprofessional aide, to a phlebotomist, but her preferred job was as a homemaker raising the boys. She loved crafting of all sorts and was constantly reupholstering things, sewing curtains and clothes, making stained glass, and much more.
Barb is survived by her mother, Jeanine; brother, Mike; sister, Vickie; sons, William (Kathy), Jeremy (Sammantha), and Michael; and two grandchildren, Lane and Mychalla. She was preceded in death by her father, Rex; husband, Russell; brother, Robert; and sister, Jane.
Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m. on March 5, 2025, at Antioch Church in Great Falls followed by a graveside service at 12:30 at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Fairfield.
To share condolences, click here to visit the O'Connor Funeral Home website.
