1. High-Flying Fun
In Columbia
PAGE 20
Sweet For The Sweet:
Watermelon Treats
For Mother’s Day
PAGE 46
Learn
To Celebrate
Your Fresh Starts
PAGE 44
Making Friends Of
Strangers & Making
Sense Of Medicare
Kay
Barbee

2. Prime Magazine May 2013 l 3
20
Contents
Prime Magazine l May 2013 l Volume 5, Issue 2
26
44
42
12
6 Prime Numbers
Fun Facts For May
8 The Shopping List
All That Jazz
10 Tasting Room
Noboleis Norton
12 Travel
The Chelsea Flower Show
16 On The Road With Ray
An Amtrak Adventure To San Antonio
20 Adventures In The Air
26 Kay Barbee: A Friend,
Indeed
31 Prime Time
Can’t-Miss Events For May
38 How Can I Help?
Welcome Home
40 Fun & Games
42 Pet Corner:
The Heat Is On
44 Life Lessons
I Hate Fresh Starts
46 Recipe Box
Celebrate Mom
50 Recipe Box
Protein Shakes It Up
52 Prime Pages
Reviews Of Shantaram
54 Columbia Confidential
Publisher Fred Parry Takes On The Issues
Columbians Are Talking About

3. 4 l May 2013 Prime Magazine
Business gurus were touting the power of networking
long before anyone had conceived of cocktail mixers or
video chats. Perhaps the oldest maxim in business is:
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
You would have a hard time finding anyone who
is better networked than Kay Barbee, the subject of
this month’s Prime profile story. Reporter Roxanne
Foster followed Barbee as she made her way around
Columbia, where she conducts business as the Central
Missouri Area Agency on Aging’s Medicare consultant
and makes friends wherever she goes. Barbee has
perfected the art of networking — you’ll be amazed by how many contacts
she has saved on her cell phone — and she’s never reluctant to tap into
that network to help someone in need. She’s an inspiring lady and one
you’ll enjoy meeting on Page 24.
Our new columnist, Saralee Perel, has added to her network of friends
lately, while also adding some muscle. She describes how she changed her
mind about working out, thanks to a little help from her new friends at the
YMCA. Pick up some giggles and motivation from Perel on Page 44.
If you know anything at all about our roving reporter Ray Speckman,
it’s that the man knows how to make friends. He comes away from each
new adventure with wonderful stories about the people and places that
fascinate him. This month, he takes us to San Antonio by train. The trip
doesn’t go exactly as planned, but for Speckman, the most interesting
moments happen when he travels down an unexpected track.
This issue takes you high into the sky with a preview of this month’s
Salute To Veterans Air Show and an insider’s glimpse into the world of hot
air ballooning. We also sniff out an excellent overseas vacation destination
at the annual Chelsea Flower Show in England, which celebrates its
centennial this year with the usual dizzying array of flowers.
I’m delighted that you’re part of our network of readers, and I hope you
enjoy the issue my staff and I have put together for you this month.
POWERFUL
CONNECTIONS
Welcome
staff
Publisher
Fred Parry
Associate Publisher
Melody Garnett Parry
Editor-in-Chief
Sandy Selby
Editorial Assistant
Morgan McCarty
Audience Development Specialist
Ren Bishop
Creative Director
Carolyn Preul
Director of Marketing
Kevin Magee
Graphic Designers
Casey Loring
Kate Moore
Photo Editor
L.G. Patterson
Marketing Representatives
Crystal Midkiff
Jesse Francisco
Sales Assistants
Jessica Card
Kalie Clennin
Office Manager
Kent Hudelson
Assistant Finance Manager
Brenda Brooks
Distribution Manager
John Lapsley
Director of Customer Retention
Gerri Shelton
Contributing Writers
Kathy Casteel, Sylvia Forbes,
Roxanne Foster, Anita Neal Harrison,
Saralee Perel, Gretchen Pressley, Ray
Speckman, John Williams
Prime Magazine is published by OutFront Communications, 47 E. Broadway, Columbia, MO 65203,
573-442-1430. Copyright OutFront Communications, 2013. The magazine is published 12 times a year on
the first day of every month. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content
without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited.
➲ LIKE US! FIND US AT FACEBOOK.COM/PRIMEMAGAZINEONLINE SERVING THE BOOMER
& SENIOR MARKETS

4. 26 l May 2013 Prime Magazine
A Friend, Indeed

5. Prime Magazine May 2013 l 27
N
Kay Barbee Can Help You Navigate Through
The Confusing World Of Medicare
By ROXANNE FOSTER
Portrait By L.G. PATTERSON, Photos By ROXANNE FOSTER
Kay Barbee knows two things: people and insurance.
When a friend needed volunteers to pull off events for the university hospital sys-
tem, Barbee talked everyone she knew into pitching in to make them happen. When she
pops into Kilgore’s Pharmacy on Providence Road, a quick errand to pick up a prescrip-
tion turns into a 45-minute reunion of old friends. Hugs abound. When a reporter new
to town mentioned she needed sources for a story about anorexia among the elderly,
Barbee put her in touch with a nutritionist from her water aerobics class.
Never heard of Kay Barbee? Well, there’s a pretty good
chance she knows you. Or at least 10 people who know you. Or,
at the very least, 10 times 10 people it might be good to know.
And she isn’t shy about using any of the 1,275 contacts in
her iPhone to match those in need with those in the know.
She built up her contact list during 42 years in various
administrative positions at the University of Missouri. Since
retiring in 2002 she has expanded it and put it to work in a
second career, tackling one of the most complex, confusing and
stressful tangles Americans face when they reach 65: Medicare.
Since 2009, Barbee has worked part-time as the Central
Missouri Area Agency on Aging’s (CMAAA) Medicare expert.
She learned to navigate the world of insurance when she was
at MU, where she served as assistant director for the Missouri
Kidney Program, and became certified as a State Health
Insurance Assistance Program consultant in 2004.
“I figured I already knew this stuff,” she says. “So, why not
use it to help people?”
A HEART FOR HELPING
Her nurturing approach to life can be traced back to her child-
hood in Cape Girardeau, where she grew up the sixth of 11
children.
“I practically helped raise some of my five youngest sib-
lings,” she says. “It’s always been in me to take care of people.”
The sentiment applies beyond family and clients to friends,
even though Barbee jokes about having different groups of
them so that if one gets tired of her she can migrate to another.
One such group: 11 women who call themselves “Booches
Babes,” most of whom have been friends for more than 20
years. At a monthly meet-up in March, three gathered for
burgers and banter.
Barbee perches at a table closest to the front door, back to
the wall, where she has a clear view of everyone who comes
in. Every few minutes, she waves at someone new. Some
wave back. Some shout out greetings and smile. More than a
few stop by for a hug.
“As you can tell, she’s the type of person who doesn’t know
a stranger,” says Gina Kinkaid, a retired university hospital
events coordinator and Barbee’s best friend of more than 40
years.
After the women place their food orders, the conversation
turns to teasing. Barbee has a penchant for inviting herself
along on other peoples’ vacations and a love of men in uni-
form. Both seem to be working for her — she’s preparing to
tag along on a one-week trip to Paris with a co-worker and
her family. Her husband of 22 years, Ernie Barbee, is a for-
mer Columbia police chief.
But the women also are eager to share stories about a
faithful friend who goes to great lengths to help others.
Kincaid tells how, depending on the season, Barbee
dressed as a clown named “Ima” or as Santa Claus for the
kids at the Children’s Hospital. Then, in 2000, she was asked
to be the first person to suit up as the hospital’s mascot, TJ
the Tiger. Barbee says she was selected because, at 5’2”, she
was short enough to not scare the kids and she could bug
people and get away with it.
“When they asked me to do it, I didn’t think I’d be able
to,” Barbee says. “I have real bad claustrophobia, so I thought
putting the mask on would be a problem.”
But she believed in the cause, so she did a trial run at a
friend’s house to make sure she could handle it.
“Children and old people are my thing,” Barbee jokes.
“Everybody else is on their own.”

6. 28 l May 2013 Prime Magazine
GETTING THROUGH THE MAZE
Her focus these days is on mid-Mis-
souri’s older members, trying to help
them make the best choices out of the
maze of Medicare.
“If I can help them by educating
them about a complicated system, it
makes me feel good,” she says.
Barbee coordinates with Medicare
consultants across the 19 counties cov-
ered by the Agency on Aging to conduct
informational sessions called Medicare
boot camps. She meets with groups,
families and individuals to go over their
prescription plans, guide them through
aid applications and hunt for ways to
help lower the cost of their medical
care.
She also trains colleagues at the
agency on Medicare basics so that they
can better serve their clients. That is
easier said than done, however.
“You can’t learn this stuff in books or
lectures,” Barbee says. “It’s purely expe-
rience that builds it. Everyone’s situa-
tion is different. There’s no one-size-fits-
all, no matter what kind of insurance.”
At one training session, agency care
specialists Christie Dykstra and Donna
Hichens, attempt to keep up with the bar-
rage of information, jargon and acronyms.
QMBs. SLMBs. MoRx. Spendowns.
After an hour, Dykstra places her
elbows on the table, puts her head in her
hands and blows out a long breath.
“When you would talk about this stuff,
I always acted like I knew what you were
talking about, but I didn’t.” Dykstra says to
Barbee. “It’s a lot of responsibility to help
these people. A lot to know.”
Fortunately, Barbee has long since
learned that who you know is just as
important as what you know.
During a “quick” visit to Kilgore’s
Pharmacy, Barbee checks in with pharma-
cy manager Gina Henry. Her relationship
with the pharmacy began when she was
with the Missouri Kidney Program, and
Kilgore’s won a bid to provide their phar-
maceutical services. It was natural to con-
tinue the professional relationship once
Barbee, who is not one to let go of people,
became a Medicare consultant.
Of course, the relationship has blos-
somed beyond work. On this day, Henry
points out Barbee’s love of bling — espe-
cially the three-inch, jeweled frog bracelet
on her right wrist — then segues seamless-
ly into an update on customers that she
and Mike Burns, the assistant manager,
referred to Barbee for counsel.
“You need someone who knows every-
thing about everything, which is Kay,”
Burns says. “We know that if she can’t
answer their questions, she knows some-
one who can.”
The visit moves upstairs, where bulk
orders are handled and where Barbee
flits from corner to corner, catching up on
news of weddings, babies and breakups.
She stops to chat with eight ladies on their
lunch break in the lounge area. They’re
trying to get Barbee to try a yoga class
with them.
“No, I don’t do yoga. It’s too slow,”
Barbee says. She slides from one side of
the floor to the other, showing off her
dance moves. “I like things fast! I do
Zumba.”
“I’m not coordinated enough for that,”
one of the ladies says.
“Me neither,” Barbee counters. “That’s
why I stand in the back.”
The chatter goes on and turns to how
wonderful Barbee looks. She must be
doing something right because she’s lost a
lot of weight. Her knee-length black jacket
and studded, bright red purse are fabu-
lous. She strikes a supermodel pose, smiles
at the compliments, then launches into an
unabashed description of her weight loss
(65 pounds in the last year) and the lap-
band surgery she had to help her along.
The chatter becomes a barrage of
questions.
“Can you eat anything you want?”
“Does it hurt?”
“Did it leave a big scar?”
Barbee doles out information about
the procedure, which doctors to ask for
and how to get it covered by insurance.
In mid-sentence, she glances around
quickly, then sweeps her jacket aside
and raises her blouse just high enough
to reveal a 1-inch scar on the right side
of her stomach.
The chorus agrees: It’s not bad at all.

7. Prime Magazine May 2013 l 29
The same frank enthusiasm and open-
ness is present as Barbee guides clients
through the Medicare maze.
“It’s hard when you’re caring for an
85-year-old and they don’t know anything
and you don’t understand it all,” Cindy
Bell says about reaching out for help with
decisions about her mother’s care. “Kay
didn’t have an agenda and wasn’t selling
anything. But she was knowledgeable and
could talk at my level.”
“She’s generous with her time,” says Ida
Johnson, a client who Barbee helped find
an affordable pharmacy insurance plan.
“If she sets up a time with you, she doesn’t
just meet with you for five minutes and
go. She doesn’t rush things. That means a
lot to me because I can take my time. Talk
in my own words. Be myself.”
“With her on my side, I don’t worry,”
says Nelly Jones, a client who sought
Barbee’s help with reevaluating her
Medicare prescription coverage. “She
really goes the extra mile for us.”
If the job requires a home visit, Barbee
doesn’t hesitate. A snowy afternoon in
February found her visiting the Columbia
home of Joyce Mason, who is trying to
qualify for Missouri HealthNet as a tem-
porary way to ease her medical costs until
she becomes eligible for Medicare later
this year. Barbee sits with Joyce to make
sure each line on her application gets
filled out correctly.
“I don’t want them to have any reason
to turn her down,” Barbee says. “There’s
no way she’s going to be able to go back
and forth if they need to see her.”
Mason, 64, was a nurse for 20 years
before going on disability due to com-
plications from asthma and COPD. She
also has lymphedema, a condition that
causes her to retain excess fluid. Now, at
448 pounds, she’s bed-ridden and bat-
tling a host of heart, kidney and lung
problems. Her pharmacist at Ellis Fischel
saw firsthand how much trouble Mason
was having covering the cost of the 29
prescription pills she takes each day, and
suggested she contact Barbee.
Barbee goes through the application
as Mason reclines on a hospital bed in the
middle of her living room. The constant
whir and pump of an oxygen machine
blends with muted laughter from The
Ellen DeGeneres Show on TV.
She asks about Mason’s family, income
and the value of any assets — prop-
erty, farm equipment or jewelry. Mason
answers each question, right down to
reporting the 18-cent average balance in
her bank account.
Halfway through, Barbee suggests
that Mason may qualify for a property
tax credit. She asks Mason’s husband and
son to collect the family’s W-2s and rent
receipts so that they can be taken to the
Columbia Public Library, where AARP
has representatives who will file members’
income tax paperwork for free.
“How am I gonna get to them?” Mason
asks.
Without hesitating, Barbee whips out
her pink-cased iPhone.
“Hang on,” Barbee says, as she looks up
Ken Toler, a friend who worked with her
at MU who volunteers with the AARP tax
aid program.
“How would a homebound person
have you all do their taxes?” she asks
Toler. “Can I bring them to you?”
After chatting a few seconds more, she
hangs up and returns to the paperwork.
“What can I say?” Barbee says with
a shrug and a half-smile as she puts her
phone away. “It’s nice to know people.”
She returns to the paperwork, and
mentions that she’ll need a copy of the
couple’s bank statements to file the appli-
cation. Mason says that it will have to
wait because they’ll need to get the docu-
ments from the bank, and there’s a fee for
the copies.
Once again, Barbee pulls out her
phone. She happens to know someone at
the bank who can probably get them the
records. For free. v
The next Medicare Boot Camp
in Columbia will be held on May
7, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
in the Boone Electric Community
Room. Since the class size is lim-
ited, please contact Kay Barbee
at 573-424-7632 or barbeek@
centurytel.net to register. For
more information, please call
the Central Missouri Agency on
Aging at 800-369-5211.
Medicare Boot Camp