Barbara Callahan Kirk

Barbara Mauney Kirk—Ocean Drive’s star-in-the-sidewalk, “Living Legends” shagger; one-half of North Myrtle Beach’s most fun-loving couple; super-model Farrah Fawcett look-alike; smart-as-a-whip and quick with an off-color joke; loving mother of two boys who adored her; caring and doting sister; Michelin-starred, short-order cook; original craft-cocktail, bartender extraordinaire; and vivacious and fun-loving friend to many—died on August 2, 2022.

There is no replacement for Barbara. She was one of a kind. She will be sorely missed. The earth shook and cried when she left it.

Barbara was born and grew up in Charlotte, a real life “Charlottean.” Her youthful stomping ground was the “dusty-trail” that folks now know as Hickory Grove. Back in the day, her parents, Nell and George Callahan, helped start Hickory Grove Baptist Church. Barbara loved going there with her family.

Barbara was a proud, 1958 graduate of East Mecklenburg High School where she was a popular “Eagle.” After graduating high school, Barbara went on to secretarial school.

In her mid-twenties, Barbara married the wrong guy. His name was Vance. They met while she was a secretary at Charlotte’s Johnson Motor Lines. Vance was handsome and charming, but he was not a shagger. He gave her one good thing, two sons—Dale and Gary Mauney. Barbara and Vance eventually parted ways by divorce. They just didn’t belong together. Barbara, who was easy on the eyes, smart and engaging, had many post-Vance suitors vying for her affection.

After parting ways from her first husband, Barbara had to become the breadwinner for her family. She started out working as a data punch operator at Scientific Products, making minimum wage or close to it. But Barbara was hardworking and ambitious. She opportunistically pivoted, enrolling in real estate school. She soon became a real estate broker, and she was good at it. She started her own Charlotte real estate company. Pretty soon, success arrived, and she could be seen around town in her silver Buick Riviera with a sunroof. Barbara was proud of herself, and her sons were even prouder of her.

An avid-churchgoer and person of faith, she raised her two boys in the church, Hickory Grove Baptist. Whether they wanted to go or not. Her not-so-tall boys played church league basketball there, and she could be seen in the stands at every game, clapping, cheering, and rooting them on. Her eldest son Gary could not make a basket to save his life, but she didn’t care. She told him to keep trying. Her younger son Dale was more athletic. He wanted to ride motorcycles, but she was a much too protective mother for that. So Dale became very good at soccer.

Barbara encouraged and rooted for her sons all her life, never permitting them to settle for failure. She knew pluck and effort were important, and committed herself to instilling those qualities in her sons.

Barbara met the man who would become the love of her life, “Captain” Carl Kirk, at a local Charlotte shag club called Groucho’s. The “Captain” thought he could “belly-roll” with the best. But she “reality checked” him, and told him he needed to revisit the “basic.” You know how critical those shaggers can be. Barbara taught him the “right way” to belly roll, and she bought him some cordovan Bass Weejuns.

Captain Kirk made Barbara laugh, he was good at that, and they ultimately married and spent the rest of their lives together, until his death just three months ago. They were a happy pair; they loved each other. Two “characters” pretty much competing to become the dictionary definition of the word. Eventually Barbara and Captain Kirk retired to a wonderful little condo near all the hot spots in Ocean Drive, right there at the corner of Main Street and Ocean Boulevard.

Back in the ’80s, Barbara used her real estate skills to help her youngest son Dale buy a tract of land on Brookshire Freeway where he started a car business called Mountain Island Motors. Soon Dale became one of the most successful young businessmen in the city. Meanwhile, her son Gary, also an “East Meck Eagle,” worked his way into NC State where he was elected student body president. With Barbara’s encouragement, Gary went on to law school, and he is now a well-known Charlotte attorney. There was never any doubt how proud Barbara was of her sons, and her love for them was always evident. Her sons worked hard to make her proud.

Barbara loved her mother Nell absolutely to death, and they spent oodles of time together. The widowed Nell had a condo close by on Monroe Road. They would percolate coffee, make the best cornbread (the sweet kind), and the whole family would congregate at the condo to talk about everything going on in their lives.

In short, Barbara was a mother, sister, and daughter, par excellence.

At night, Barbara and Captain Kirk often could be seen around town at places like Lynn’s Dance Club, home of the Charlotte Shag Club, where the best shaggers in the city gathered. Barbara loved it there, and she would sip a Coors Light for hours, usually with salt sprinkled around the edge, Southern-style.

Barbara also loved Ocean Drive, North Myrtle Beach, and during the Society of Shaggers (SOS) “migrations,” you could see her with Captain Kirk cutting the rug at the OD Pavilion and at Ducks Beach Club. Barbara knew every word of songs like “Nip Sip” and “Sixty Minute Man”—it was wonderful to hear her melodically sing that classic beach music.

On Thursdays in the summer, Barbara would stake out a prime spot for her beach chair at the OD Horse Shoe. She then set about listening to, and singing along with The Embers or The Catalinas, often in the company of her son Dale and his wife Julie. Full of life and joy and togetherness. Dale was joined to his mom at the hip, almost literally. One day, Barbara told Dale she was the “happiest I’ve ever been” while living at the beach with Kirk, hanging out with him and Julie.

Barbara loved visiting with her sister Carol, just up the way in Holden Beach. They would catch up and love on each other, talk Republican politics, and do the things that close sisters do. Other times, Carol would visit her sister in Ocean Drive. They would hang out on Barbara’s back patio, listen to the waves, and look at the moon and the stars, enjoying each other’s company. Sometimes their brother Jack would come up from Kannapolis for a visit. They would talk about their mother Nell, and the good times they had as kids at the Dusty Trail. Nobody had to tell them about the importance of family.

Barbara’s son Gary would come up to visit her in OD, and they would regale and recount the nights they spent watching Chevy and Gilda read the news on Saturday Night Live and Johnny Carson’s letter-to-the-forehead rendition of “Carnac the Magnificent.” Other times they would sit on the beach together, work on their tans, listen to beach music, and have fun together. Laughing, ignoring the world’s problems (and one of Gary’s soon-to-be-due legal briefs), and loving the ocean. Barbara made the best shrimp scampi ever, and she would try to teach Gary how to not overcook the shrimp and pasta. Barbara also loved to take Gary to Coconuts, a bar right around the corner from her beach condo, the one with the best Piña Coladas.

Barbara also loved to go to Orlando to visit her cousins, Gig, Marty, Randy, and Donna. Barbara would sit up all night playing Monopoly with them. It was a “thing.” All of them would sit around the kitchen table singing the Eagles’ “Dirty Laundry” or ZZ Top’s “Tush,” at the top of their lungs. When they weren’t playing Monopoly, it was Canasta for hours on end. Barbara always promised she wasn’t looking through the discard pile (i.e., cheating). But she would win so much no one could ever be sure. Barbara always hated to leave at the end of a visit, and would cry when she had to pack up and go back to North Carolina. Once home, she burned up the phone lines, calling to share in the latest family news.

Barbara left her family with countless great memories. She loved making movies of family events, a tradition she started way back when with a Brownie movie camera. She loved sitting and watching those movies at Christmas or the Fourth of July. She loved her family fiercely. She was loyal, and when there was a family crisis, the first wagon in the circle was hers. She was so funny and smart, it’s hard to imagine a world without her in it.

Barbara, who had just turned 81, is survived by her two loving sons, Dale and Gary Mauney (and their wives, respectively, Julie Mozeley and Shelley Daniels); her doting sister Carol Jarvis (Larry); her always-there brother Jack Callahan (Nancy); and her many wonderful cousins, nieces, and nephews. Barbara was preceded in death by her mother Nell Reid Callahan and father George Washington Callahan.

Visitation will be held at the McEwen Charlotte Chapel, 5716 Monroe Road, Charlotte, North Carolina 28212, on Saturday, August 13, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A funeral service will immediately follow in the Chapel at 12:30 p.m. The graveside service will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Barbara was not usually on time—her friends affectionately told her she was running on “Callahan Time” (her maiden name). Barbara’s family promises this time, in all seriousness, she will not be late. Barbara will be thankful for your presence, or if you can’t be there, for your thoughts and prayers in her honor. Her family misses her beyond belief. She is upstairs now, happy in heaven, dancing with the Captain.