Barbara Vawter Garr

Barbara was born on September 28, 1930 in Louisa county to the late Virginia and Ernest Vawter. Upon graduating from high school she was employed by the C&P Telephone Company in Louisa as a switchboard operator. She was member of Goldmine Baptist church where she taught Sunday School and served as assistant pianist.

Culpeper became her home in 1962 when she married her husband of 51 years John Marvin Garr.

During her lifetime in Culpeper she was a very active member of Culpeper Baptist Church, involved in Women’s Missionary Union, teaching Girls’ Auxiliary, and serving as Superintendent of Sunday School for the Junior Department (10-14 yr olds).

She was a member of the VFW Women’s Auxiliary and a Culpeper Hospital Auxiliary Volunteer up until 2015. She served as a “Pink Lady” in the hospitality shop every Friday morning, with her dear friend Margaret Kite, and later manned the visitor’s reception desk.

She learned to sew on a singer treadle sewing machine as a teenager and continued the hobby her entire life. She made clothes for herself, her mother, aunt, and children. She loved to knit, crochet, and sew, but making quilts was her passion for the last 25 years.

Senior Living at Dogwood Village in Orange became her home in 2020 when she could no longer live alone. She made sure her sewing machine came with her. She quickly immersed herself in all the craft making, activities, and even field trips that Dogwood offered. She was so loved by the staff that they called her their Grandma.

The family would like to express their deepest appreciation to the entire staff of Dogwood Village for the loving care and attention they have given her the past 3 years.

She leaves behind her children, Sam Cave, Springfield Va, Dorothy Leon(John), Nebo NC, and Danny Garr(Gabbie) Culpeper, her grandchildren Patrick Mitchell, Samara Abbott (Rich), Molly Johnson (Dustin), and Hayley Garr (Ricky) and four great-grandchildren Sonney, Ashby and Weston Jenkins and Vaughn Johnson and sisters-in-law Frances Vawter , Louisa Va, and Mary Jo Vawter, Newport News Va.

She was preceded in death by her husband John Marvin Garr, her brothers Walter Earl Vawter and William Baxter Vawter, and her sister Dorothy Vawter Cundiff.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Dogwood Village Senior Living Activities Department.

Funeral Services will be held Saturday December 16, 2023 at Clore English Funeral Home, 11190 James Monroe Highway, Culpeper, VA at noon. Interment will be in Fairview Cemetery.