MADRID - The Stu-Man Crew will march tonight in Ogdensburg.

When an estimated 600 people on 35 teams take to the track at Ogdensburg Free Academy at 6 p.m. for the annual all-night Relay For Life walk to raise funds to fight cancer, the family and friends of Stuart W. Barkley, 30 strong and known as the Stu-Man Crew, will be there.

“We’re gonna try,” according to Robin L. Barkley, team leader, co-owner of the Ole Smokehouse and sister-in-law to Mr. Barkley, who died in February after a nine-year battle with brain cancer.

He was 48.

Mrs. Barkley recalls her brother-in-law as a man who wouldn’t at all mind what is being done in his memory tonight.

“No, I think he’d be pretty happy about it,” she said.

If that is true, then Mr. Barkley would have been over the moon at the Ole Smokehouse a few months ago. On March 31, a party was held in his memory and to raise funds for Relay For Life. Special teams wore period costumes - the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and the hippie era. Heads were shaved for donations.

And in the middle of all this fun, money was raised - $1,900 to be exact.

“I just thought it was a good way to keep the family together,” Mrs. Barkley said. “We can do this in his memory.”

Mrs. Barkley said the Stu-Man Crew has already raised about $2,000 in pledges going into tonight’s walk at OFA.

Mr. Barkley’s survivors will be among the walkers tonight. They include his wife, Dawn; son, Michael, 31; and daughters Megan, 27, Lindsay, 23, and Logan, 16.

Mr. Barkley is also survived by his parents, Wendell D. and Jean M. Barkley of Norwood, and two grandchildren.

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