Personal Life
Barnes was born in Gorman in Eastland County, Texas, on April 17, 1938, and named "Benny Frank Barnes". His parents, B.F. Barnes and Ina B. Carrigan, had another son twenty-one months later, Rick Barnes. The family moved to Comanche County, where Barnes graduated in 1956 from De Leon High School in De Leon. After high school, he enrolled for one semester at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, followed by a semester at Tarleton College in Stephenville, Texas. That spring he married his high school sweetheart, Martha Morgan, and at age twenty began studying at the University of Texas at Austin.
Barnes and his third wife, Melanie, reside in Austin with their two daughters Elena and Blaire, who were adopted from Romania and Russia, respectively. Barnes has two children from his first marriage, Greg and Amy. He has four grandchildren: Ashley Mathis, Ben Barnes, II, Kelly Barnes, and Katherine Mathis.
Read more about this topic: Ben Barnes (politician)
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