Barbara Marie Dalton

She was born to parents George and Catherine Gallagher in 1941. Barbara graduated Medford High School and soon after began her career at Fireman’s Fund in downtown Boston. While there she met and married the love of her life William F Dalton in 1960. Bill and Barbara were married for 52 years. They lived in Rockland MA where they raised their children before relocating to Florida in 1987.

Barbara is survived by her five children: Sheila and Paul Fallon, Sheryl Dalton and Eric Burton, Bill Dalton and Lisa Gwin, Scott and Melissa Dalton, Sean and Gillian Dalton. She is also survived by her many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and extended family members. Barbara’s husband Bill predeceased her in 2013.

Barbara was a crafter, creating beautiful ceramic pieces in her youth that are still cherished today. She enjoyed crewel embroidery, sewing and gardening around her yard. Barbara was also an avid and accomplished knitter, having made umpteen baby blankets, Irish knit sweaters and personalized Christmas stockings. She treasured the time spent in recent years trying to teach her granddaughters the craft.

Barbara also loved adventures of any kind. Whether it was travel, river canoeing, children’s performances, dockside fishing, shopping (her favorite!), festivals, theme parks or even an extremely fast ride around the Daytona speedway, you could count her in! This free spirit guided grandchildren to freestyle paint the roof of her car, encouraged them to color outside the lines in their coloring books, and to enthusiastically welcome every day. The spirit that lived in Barbara will continue to live on through them.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 12, 2021 at the Bayview Memorial Park. The family will observe any COVID protocols in place at that time and requests any guests to do so as well. The family welcomes donations to Alzheimer's Association (act.alz.org), BCRF Breast Cancer Research Foundation (bcrf.org) or Emerald Coast Hospice curohealthservices.com/donate/) as an expression of sympathy.