Barbara Bigheart Surdi died at her home in Tulsa, Okla. after a short illness. She was born in Pawhuska, one of three daughters to Harry and Ruth Steckel. She married J.R. Bigheart in 1941, and they had two children. In 1959 she moved to Los Angeles where she later married John Surdi. They lived in Europe for a few years before moving to El Paso, where she was a legal secretary to the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. Barbara retired a few years after John died, and returned to El Paso, and was proud to discover she had a "green thumb" as she made tending to her garden her prime hobby. She was preceded in death by her older sister, Harriette Steckel Hughes. Shes survived by: her younger sister, Veran Steckel of El Paso; and her two children, Donna Bigheart Hurowitz of San Francisco, and Marc Bigheart of Tulsa. A tribute to Barbara and her life will be held at sea on a later date.