Graveside service with military honors for Mr. Peter Basil Warden 59, of Killeen, Texas will be held on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, 11:00 a.m., at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery, in Killeen, Texas.

The family of Mr. Warden would like to express their sincere appreciation for all of those who attended his service, sent condolences, and signed his guest book.

Peter Basil Barnes-Warden was the 8th child of Basil and Elizabeth Barnes of Potters Village, Antigua, in the Caribbean born September 27, 1964. He passed away on August 25, 2024, in Temple, Texas.

As a young boy growing up in Potters, he attended the Potters Government School and later the Clare Hall Secondary School. During his after-school hours, he assisted the family tending for the animals that the family reared. When the family sold the animals, he turned his attention to assisting our mother – Elizabeth – in the small convenience shop that she operated in the village.

He spent many afternoons working in the shop, and he became quite good at helping her to manage the affairs of this small business.

The big change in his life came when he was eighteen (18) years old. At that time, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick 'Tucky' Warden - adopted both him and me and took us to live with him in St. Croix, U.S Virgin Islands. He joined the US Army Reserve where served for five months, and in 1986 he joined the US Army and was trained as an engineer. He was often deployed to build homes, roads and such structures for the US Army.

He was deployed to Iraq during the first Gulf War where in was engaged in construction of barracks, roads and other facilities for the army. As far as we know, he was never involved in actual combat during the war. His other deployments included Nicaragua and Somalia for similar infrastructural developments.

Peter left the US Army in 1995 completing nine years of military service to the US Government. He moved to Georgia where he worked on-and-off for companies involved in transportation. He was a Big-wheel driver delivering goods from state to state.

In 2012, after several years when we were not able to make contact with him, I invited him to come live with me in Killeen, Texas. He arrived in May of that year and therefore he was around to assist me looking after our mother who was there with me at the time.

He has always confessed that those few months that he lived with me while mommy was there, were some of the best times of his life. He really relished the idea of spending time with her. Mommy returned to Antigua in September (2012). She died in 2014.

Looking back, he would often mimic her by trying to speak like her…he would boyishly call out my name just as she would…at times it was quite annoying, but I recognized that this gave him a sense of belonging.

Peter would eventually return to Georgia where he lived until last August when he returned to Killeen. He died almost a year after he returned here.

Peter has had his battles in life…our hope is that now, finally, his soul is at rest.

Farewell dear brother…on behalf of all your siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews and other family members…rest comfortably in God's arms…until we meet on the other side!!!