Barbara Ann Selby

Barbara Ann went home to be with the Lord on April 13, 2017. She died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her family and many loved ones and is now in Heaven dancing the night away with Jesus and laughing with her mother and father.

Barbara Ann was born in Waynesville, Missouri on July 6, 1945 to Anna May and Ralph Ogden DeWitt, MD. She grew up in the Baptist Church and enjoyed dancing, riding horses and her Uncle Tommy’s tractor. She also spent many days assisting her mom and dad in their 24-bed hospital with her surviving brother General Ralph Ogden DeWitt Jr., MD. Barbara went to Cheley Mountaineering Camp every summer where she tackled the Rocky Mountains all the way up Longs Peak, a high point of the Rockies at 14,259’. She was very active in the Drama Club, the Captain of the Cheerleading Team, Homecoming Queen, Prom Queen, the Quarterback of the girl’s football team, and the only girl on the Karate Team. She also was an excellent diver, where she used her charms to bypass security to use the Officer’s Club Pool at Fort Leonard Wood where a lovely young West Point Graduate jokingly reprimanded her for not having the appropriate credentials and/or identification to be allowed in the pool area, but ultimately asked her out on a dinner date. She said yes.

Barbara was married to John Robert Selby on June 21, 1967 after his tours in Korea and Vietnam. Thereafter she received her B.A. from Drury College, majoring in Drama. Barbara and John traveled the United States serving their country and after John accepted a contract with the Navy in San Diego, they decided to permanently reside in the sunny city.

Barbara and John raised two children, John DeWitt and Blake Alexis and have lived in the same house since February 1977, where John ran his own real estate development and construction firms. Barbara helped every step of the way and managed to somehow take young John to soccer practice and then ballroom classes and Blake to her hundreds of ballet classes, while still making a home cooked dinner every single night and joking that she would clock 500 miles per week on the Pontiac. Through all of this, Barbara continued to play Mozart to Rachmaninoff on her Baby Grand Piano as a classically trained pianist. She then picked up Ballroom Dancing and danced with the whole family and excelled to a competitive level where she recently won the World Championship with her professional partner. As she traveled the world with her husband John, she also learned how to speak French fluently. Barbara was a self proclaimed “Diva” with a sense of humor that brought all of us to tears, especially her group of girlfriends deemed “the lunch bunch.”

Barbara was the most selfless and generous person who gave her heart and soul to Jesus, her husband of 50 years this June, her kids, friends, and multiple charities. She was an amazing and proud mother who never stopped dancing and talked constantly about her two children of whom she always said, “I grew them myself.” John DeWitt is a successful competitive ballroom dancer and teacher, and Blake is a pediatric nurse practitioner. Barbara was such a bright light in all of our lives, and she will continue to be as she cares for us from Above.

Arrangements under the direction of EI Cajon Mortuary & Cremation Service, El Cajon, California.