Of course this is, first and foremost, a story about Kelley Barnes. It’s also more: a story of friendships, life and death, beginnings and endings, giving our time and attention to causes greater than ourselves. Heartbreak and joy. Dear friends and valued mentors. Visionary foresight, vast wealth used for the betterment of others and the history of Oklahoma City. As Stefon from “SNL” might say, “This story has everything.” And he’d be right.

Let’s get to the heart-rending crux of it. On the day she spoke to Luxiere¸ our intrepid heroine had just finished her first week in her new position—the role of a lifetime, really, and one she’s perfect for. Barnes is the recently installed executive director of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, only the fourth in its nearly six decades. Her first days had been a flurry. “I’ve really just jumped in. I don't even think I know how to work the telephone yet. We have some big things coming up, and the team is pulling together heroically to get them over the finish line,” Barnes says.

The exceptional woman who had helmed the foundation immediately prior to Barnes was her dear friend Louisa McCune, a sparkling force of nature felled far too soon. In August of this year, she died after a multi-year battle with cancer, which she waged with incredible grace. Perhaps you knew her; likely you knew of her. Either way, you’ve certainly benefited from her work. McCune was vibrant, witty, elegant and a tireless champion for the arts and animal welfare in Oklahoma, leading the Kirkpatrick Foundation since 2011.

Barnes and McCune first connected in 2012, when the former returned to Oklahoma from Santa Fe to lead the development and fundraising team at the Myriad Gardens Foundation, the management arm of the newly reimagined botanical gardens in downtown Oklahoma City. “One of the first recollections I have of her was standing in line at the Full Circle Bookstore,” Barnes says. The two recognized one another and, “We just got into a little conversation. I think the next time I saw her was at an opening at Joy Reed Belt’s gallery.” That’s JRB Gallery, anchor of Paseo Arts District. Their camaraderie blossomed. “We just hit it off immediately.”

After Barnes left the Gardens to work for the Oklahoma City Community Foundation (OCCF) in 2015, their paths crossed more often. OCCF and Kirkpatrick Foundation share heritage, both having been founded by the Kirkpatrick family. “We’d go to a lot of the same events, oftentimes solo, so it would be more fun to go together. We didn’t live too far apart, so I’d pick her up, or she’d pick me up, and we’d go to things together … We just had this little late-in-life friendship. We thought similarly about many, many things,” Barnes says. The pair also shared a mantra: you are exactly where you are supposed to be. It was, touchingly, one of the last things they said to one another.

As Barnes talks about her friend, grief visibly washes over her, and tears threaten to spill. The memories are still so raw. But then she remembers another story and laughs through her tears to talk about a recent Zoom meeting at which McCune appeared wearing a sequined cocktail dress. She’d worn it to work that day. When asked why, McCune’s answer was quintessentially eccentric, pragmatic and logical (though perhaps not to everyone): It was the only thing she had that was clean.

Barnes and McCune also share deep Oklahoma roots, and a love for the arts and animals. An Oklahoma City native, Barnes attended Bishop John Carroll Cathedral School, followed by Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School. She flew the coop for college, attending Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland where she studied art history, with a minor in business/marketing. “I spent my junior year abroad, but in reverse. I went to the University of Hartford, where I had an internship and did my capstone project working at the Joseloff Gallery on the campus.” The gallery has a well-earned reputation for mounting significant exhibitions—during Barnes’ tenure she worked with the artist Sandy Skoglund, whose photography and installations are brightly colored, meticulously assembled, surrealistic tableaux. “I worked for a really amazing curator, Zina Davis. She put a lot of trust in me to put up shows and do all these things that I hadn't done before.”

After university, Oklahoma called her home. Perhaps it was a young man. Either way, Barnes landed her first job selling advertising for the Oklahoma Gazette, an alternative weekly that was for decades Oklahoma City’s must-read. From there, Barnes found her way into philanthropy and donor relations after a jaunt at Glamour Shots, an Oklahoma City-based company which, in the 1990s, stormed the nation’s malls in a cloud of Final Net. “Glamour Shots gave me the fundamentals of business,” she says. “I learned about the importance of process.” The company also invested in its staff, sending Barnes to computer courses to learn, among other things, how to work a newfangled program called Excel. From there she worked at the Regional Food Bank and Allied Arts, learning the art and science of development work and adding to her coterie of lifelong mentors and friends.

Before too long, Santa Fe came calling, and our gal picked up the phone. Really it was Mandy Pons calling. She was the executive director at Allied Arts in the early 1990s and had retired to Albuquerque, where she was doing fundraising consulting for the National Dance Institute New Mexico (NDI). She was calling to recruit Barnes, who had recently fallen in love with Santa Fe. “My mother and I had gone out to Santa Fe just for fun. We got in our little SUV, and I put my bike on the back, and we went,” Barnes says. “I said, ‘Mom, I think I should live in Santa Fe.’” Precisely a year later she drove back out to the New Mexico capital. “I had my interview. They offered me the job on the spot, and I accepted.”

To no one’s surprise, Santa Fe was exactly where she was supposed to be. “It was magical. It was an amazing decade,” she says. During her tenure as NDI’s first fundraising professional, she helped raise more than $60 million for capital campaigns, special projects and NDI’s endowment. She worked with people like a very private member of the Rockefeller family, Wallace Annenberg, Laura Bush, Tommy Tune, Ann Reinking and Shirley MacLaine, and enjoyed every grueling, spectacular second.

“It had been pretty intensive,” she says. “After a decade, I needed to come up for air. My father had died, and I wanted to be closer to my mom. She and I are very close, and I wanted to be with her. I had—and have—a lot of good friends here. It was just time to come home.” To get that ball rolling, she thought for a minute and then called the one and only James Pickel, a man deeply entrenched in the arts and civic life in Oklahoma City, who had been a pivotal part of Allied Arts. “I said, ‘James, it’s Kelley Barnes, do you remember me?’ And he said, ‘You ready to come home?’” Pickel asked what she had in mind. Barnes said she’d just seen the development director position for Myriad Gardens Foundation. “He said, ‘I’ll call you back.’” Five minutes later Barnes had a meeting scheduled with then-executive director Maureen Heffernan, who immediately offered her the job. Back home in Oklahoma City, lo and behold, Barnes was exactly where she was supposed to be.

As Barnes talks about her life, her career, her stories are filled with the people she’s met along the way. Her relationships last lifetimes. All are links in a beautiful chain of unabashed do-gooders. Mentors who’ve become dear friends are a key demographic in her orbit—and they include McCune, of course, but also the magnificent Joy Reed Belt, Paseo doyenne and founder of JRB Gallery, whom Barnes met at a painting class 30 years ago. There’s also Nancy Anthony, former executive director at OCCF, whose counsel and friendship continue to be invaluable and, more recently, Christian Keesee, chairman of the Kirkpatrick Foundation and president of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, whom Barnes describes as “A true visionary, very collaborative and decisive. Always beautifully dressed. He is a natural leader, who, when discussing projects or initiatives of the Foundation always asks the question, ‘How can we encourage and support?’”

And isn’t that, really, the most important question of all?

About Kirkpatrick Foundation

John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick, prominent citizens of Oklahoma City, saw a need and felt compelled to help develop the cultural and civic structures of their hometown. On May 17, 1955, Kirkpatrick Foundation was officially established with an initial contribution of $10,000 to serve as a vehicle for personal philanthropic endeavors. In the years since, Kirkpatrick Foundation has given away more than $75 million in philanthropic funding. Its approach to giving was to keep organizational structure simple; to maintain personal involvement with the charities and cultural activities of the community; and to encourage and embrace a large number of charities, rather than supporting only a few.

Each generation of the Kirkpatrick family has contributed to and influenced the focus of the foundation’s giving. John Kirkpatrick’s stewardship, guided by a lifelong interest in science, prompted a great number of Oklahoma’s scientific and medical endeavors. Eleanor’s deep love of the arts was the reason for the establishment, encouragement and growth of many of Oklahoma City’s beloved artistic and cultural institutions. Joan Kirkpatrick, a strong advocate for animal welfare, was responsible for much of the foundation’s contribution to animal research, welfare and conservation. She also provided the impetus for many Kirkpatrick Foundation arts and education initiatives. Today, third-generation philanthropist Christian Keesee is leading the foundation back to its original principles of meeting the community where its needs are, while encouraging fresh ideas and new approaches.