Barbara Beck Barnett

Barbara Beck Barnett passed away on October 29, 2025, into God’s eternal embrace, surrounded by family. She was born in Seagrove/Ramseur, NC, to James Donald and Ramie Eleanor, the oldest of three sisters. Her early days were spent in Archdale, NC, where she attended Trinity High School. Following graduation, she entered WFU’s North Carolina Baptist Hospital School of Nursing, where she excelled and was inducted into the Santa Philomena honor society. Moving to Raleigh as a newlywed and newly minted nursing school graduate, she worked in both hospital and physician’s office settings.

As her family grew, she delighted in supporting her children, nieces and grandchildren and even their friends on the sidelines of soccer games and track & cross country meets, at swim meets and poetry readings, and at orchestra and band concerts. Often a grade mother and PTA volunteer, she especially loved taking part in school library enrichment and improvement programs, always striving to make a difference in her community. She was a life-long reader as well and instilled that love in those around her.

While working for a plastic surgery practice, she learned of a new procedure coming to the US from France called liposuction. After performing and reviewing the protocols for patient care, she determined it could be done with application efficiency and more optimal post op patient compliance. Taking her knowledge of sewing and the procedure, she invented the post-surgical compression garment – “the original and the best”. From the first basic hand-sewn garment, she expanded the product offerings and formed Caromed International. Over her nursing and then business career, this was just one example of her tremendous ability to sense future trends and act upon them.

In 1993, she married Tom Barnett, and they formed a loving partnership in life and a team in business that was able to expand the size and scope of Caromed. Their collaboration with providers, raw materials manufacturers, and professional organizations enabled them to recognize and make groundbreaking improvements over the years. With the textile industry’s ebbs and flows, they saw an opportunity to acquire cut and sew equipment, and then establish for Caromed a technically precise and highly skilled manufacturing facility in Raleigh, NC.

While attending surgical education meetings & conferences of behalf of the company, Barbara and Tom visited many states and countries, golf clubs often in tow. The memories they made over the years of travel enriched their conversations as they stayed closer to home and provided them with a great library of adventure stories, meals enjoyed, roads traveled and friends made, even some famous ones!

A two-time cancer survivor, Barbara took immense joy in family gatherings over her 90 years including beach trips and holiday meals with her sisters, Martha (Billy) and Henrietta (Sid), and their families. She dearly loved her children, sisters, brothers in law, nieces, great nieces, great nephews, and cousins, and she cast a wide net to include many extended family members in her warm and loving family circle. Proud of her ancestral heritage, she was astute at recalling family names and places, accomplishments and occupations, including leadership in the Revolutionary War, farming, education, and community building.

Barbara cultivated deep and warm friendships with her thoughtful correspondence. Handwritten cards and thank you notes for any occasion or kindness were a hallmark. She found lasting friendships in gardening with her friends in Raleigh’s Turf Turners and then North Ridge Home and Garden Clubs, hosting bridge club, playing golf and tennis, and singing Alto I in the Oak City Voices (OCV) chorus. She served on several OCV committees, and the treasured friendships she made, along with their performances, were some of her greatest joys in recent years.

Barbara is survived by her husband Tom, sister Henrietta (Sid), her son Jim, daughter Beth (Gary), granddaughters Rachel (Jon), Emily, Grace, great-granddaughter Charlotte, and many special nieces, nephews and cousins. She was predeceased by her parents, her sister Martha, and brother-in-law Willie.

A special thanks to her talented and compassionate aides, nurses, doctors and surgeons at WakeMed Raleigh and her primary care team at Boylan Clinic. We are so very grateful for the compassionate caregivers who helped her remain in her home, continue to set a lovely table, maintain her plants and flowers, enjoying the birds, her garden, and even her ongoing quest to outdo the bird feeder-raiding squirrels.

A life well-lived, we are grateful that she was able to convey her wishes, and we strive to uphold her legacy. If desired, donations may be made in her honor to Oak City Voices (OCV, PO Box 30394, Raleigh, NC, 27609), or Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church (PO Box 4730, Asheboro, NC, 27204), where she was laid to rest.

Services to celebrate her life and honor her committal were officiated by a special family friend, the Reverend Molly Smerko and Brown-Wynne Raleigh is serving the family