Monday evening, August 12, 2019, Barbara Wood Wagner, beloved wife, mother and grandmother, passed away at the age of 83 just days after losing the love of her life, her husband Richard. She was born on November 14, 1935, near Callands, Virginia, to Samuel Harvey Wood and Grace Truman Thompson Wood. Barbara grew up on a farm in pre-electrified, rural Virginia where she learned the values that influenced the rest of her life: a fierce loyalty to family, an unwavering thriftiness, and an inexhaustible work ethic. After graduating from Callands High School in 1954 she attended Radford College funded by her mother’s hard-earned milk and egg money. There Barbara met and fell in love with Richard J. Wagner from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Their marriage in 1955 began a 64 year loving partnership. After Richard, known as Dick, was commissioned in the U.S. Army Barbara shared three assignments with him to West Germany and one to Thailand. She raised six children in what were often challenging circumstances. Barbara shouldered the full burden of caring for their children as a single mother while Dick served two tours in Vietnam. After 22 years as an Army wife, during which she uprooted and moved her household almost every year, they settled in western Oregon and Washington. Barbara enjoyed cooking and baking not only for her family, but also for friends, neighbors and soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq. Her cookies earned her thank you letters from two general officers. An avid gardener, Barbara’s yard was ablaze with color much of the year. While enjoying cooking, baking and gardening Barbara’s greatest passion were her children and grandchildren. Born during the Great Depression, she was frugal in all things except for her children and grandchildren whom she showered with love and generosity. Barbara’s grandchildren will long remember her as a grandmother who always had time to bake their favorite cookies, listen intently to all they had to say, and gently hold their hands on long walks. She was preceded in death by her son, Frederick; husband, Dick; parents, Grace and Samuel; and brothers and sisters, Harvey, Virginia, Otha, Elizabeth, Benjamin, Randolph and Esther. Barbara is survived and grievously missed by her brother, Melvin; five children, Karen, Suzanne, Robert, Sheryl and Michael; and seven grandchildren, Andrew, Kathy, Benjamin, Amy, Alyssa, Richard and Caivs.
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