Barbara A. Bellin

It is with great joy that we celebrate the life and final homecoming of Barbara Ann (Nelson) Bellin to heaven, where she is now in eternal life with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, after Barbara passed away peacefully on February 2, 2025, surrounded by her family. 

Barbara was born on March 2, 1946, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Howard and Esther Nelson. Barbara was a 1964 graduate of Watertown High School in Watertown, Wisconsin, and on October 7, 1967, she married the love of her life Robert W. Bellin. After graduating from Business College, she was employed as an Executive Assistant at Milwaukee area businesses while her husband finished his professional education and military service and received the coveted “Putting Hubby Through” award from Sigma Phi Rho fraternity. Barbara most loved her employment in the chaotic newsroom at Milwaukee Channel 4 Television. In the days before cell phones and digital media technology, feature editing was manually splicing incoming film clips and smoothing egos of reporters whose material ended up on the cutting room floor. Emerging news events meant tracking down any available reporter while riding herd on broadcast deadlines as manual telephones clamored for answering and media presenters were sometimes missing in action prior to broadcast time.

Barbara is survived by her sister Kate Malin of San Antonio, TX, twin brother Barry Nelson of Prescott Valley, AZ, husband Robert, sons David (at home) and Brian Bellin (Erin), and grandchildren Nora and Evan. She was preceded in death by her parents, Howard and Esther Nelson.

Upon her husband’s return from his military obligation, Barbara and Robert settled in the Village of Chenequa in beautiful Lake Country, and Barbara became a full-time homemaker with the birth of her first son, David. After receiving “a failure to thrive” and a newly defined “suspected autism syndrome” diagnosis for David and a subsequent recommendation to institutionalize him, Barbara declined. With the support of her mother, an early childhood teacher, Barbara embarked on a new lifetime career of early intervention promotion for handicapped children in Lake Country area schools utilizing her organizational skills and behind-the-scenes activities. Barbara also was an early supporter of the Special Olympics, in which David thrived. Following her passion to always look to the future, Barbara became the 1st person in Wisconsin and the 8th person in the world to receive an experimental heart procedure at St. Lukes Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which added almost four years to her life. 

Memorials in Barbara’s name can be directed to Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church Early Childhood Center in Hartland, Wisconsin, or the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

A private celebration of life will be held at a future date

Your ever-loving husband will miss you greatly. Across the years, we walked together under clear blue skies and in great green forests. Now that your time on earth is through sometime in heaven too, you will have my hand.