Yvonne V. Mercer Barnes, age 97, passed away peacefully on Friday, December 19, 2025, at Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, Alabama. She was born on April 8, 1928, in Wilson County, North Carolina, to Doc and Sadie (Worrell) Mercer.
Yvonne devoted her life to caring for others. She worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse and served faithfully as a Sunday School teacher for over 20 years. She was an avid quilter, lovingly creating quilts for newborns and many others, and she found great joy in gardening. Her kindness, faith, and generous spirit touched all who knew her.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Doc and Sadie Mercer; her husband, Joseph Barnes; her son, Donald Barnes; her daughter, Belinda Finch; and her nine siblings.
Yvonne is survived by her sons, Dennis Barnes and his wife Brenda, and Charles “Chuck” Barnes and his wife Marion; her daughter, Martha Barnes; her son-in-law, Randell Powell; her brothers, Lewis Mercer and Joseph Newton Mercer; eleven grandchildren; twenty great-grandchildren; and six great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, December 29, 2025, at Blue Lake Baptist Church, with Rev. Rich Smelser officiating. The family will receive friends beginning at 10:00 a.m. prior to the service. Interment will follow at Blue Lake Cemetery.
Brown Funeral Home & Blue Lake Crematory of Chipley, Florida, is entrusted with the arrangements. Family and friends are invited to sign the online register at www.brownfh.net