Barbara Dye Booth

Her mother, Jo Kennedy and her father, Ellsworth Dye, met while performing vaudeville from New York to Miami. Jo was a singer and Ellsworth a trumpet player. It was a romantic start to a short story. They married, settled in Montgomery and had two beautiful children, Ed and Babs. Ellsworth died suddenly when Babs was a baby. Her mother remarried seven years later and gave Babs a precious sister, little Debbie. They were sisters, best friends and travelers extraordinaire.

Her love of travel and adventure began at age 15, when the polio epidemic struck Montgomery, in 1953. Her mother, Jo and Aunt Dot loaded the kids in the car and went on a three month long road trip. Brother Ed (16), cousin Andy (16), Babs (15) and little Debbie (7) traveled from Miami to Mobile to the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Montana to Chicago and home to Montgomery. All this in a car without air-conditioning and no freeways. The stories they could tell!

Babs loved God, country, family and friends and never met a stranger.

She enjoyed music, reading, gardening, antiquing, cooking, entertaining and traveling. At age 80 she taught herself to paint and did it beautifully.

Babs loved to say “It's a beautiful day and I choose to be happy!”

Keep the faith and stay optimistic were words she lived by.

She leaves behind her beloved children, Leigh Dawkins (Alton), Marshall Tomblin, Jr., (Janeth), Ed Tomblin (Debbie), Mary Beth McGuire (Edward). Her beloved grandchildren, Radisson McGuire, Dalton McGuire and her Costa Rican grandchildren Eduardo, Maria and Leno and great grandchildren Chris, Kimley, Charley and Violet.

Others that will mourn her loss are her sister Debbie Klein and nieces and nephews Todd Klein, Jodie Klein, Josh Dye, Ethan Bixby and Jay Koval.

Special thanks to Marian and Brooks Tomblin and Renate Dawkins.

To Dannette thank you for the special prayers.

A celebration of her life will be in the spring.

If you wish to make a donation, in her memory, please do so to your favorite charity.