Barbara Trout Morrow

Headstrong, smart, funny, one of a kind, country girl, force of nature

Passed away peacefully in her sleep after a Rip Van Winkle length nap. She was preceded in death by one eardrum, several teeth, one uterus, one brain tumor, two knee joints, one thumb joint and one toe joint. She would always do a check of all her “parts” before leaving the house: glasses, hearing aids, teeth, etc. and laugh about getting old and having so many parts to keep track of.

She was born in Cool Springs, NC on January 14th, 1934…well, really on January 13th, but we didn’t find that out until she was 65. From then on, we just celebrated her birthday on both days. She loved it. She was the oldest daughter of 8 siblings, 4 sisters and 3 brothers and was a second mama to them all.

She graduated from Gramling High School where it is rumored she walked uphill in the snow both ways every day and dried her bobby sox in the oven every night so she would have a clean pair. She graduated from Limestone College and worked as a reporter and managing editor at Rutherford County News, where she met her husband Paul when he came in to buy some advertising for the logging company where he worked. He said he would buy the ad if he could get a date with her. She “let” him carry her camera around when she was reporting. They were married for 52 years and last week she still thought he was “pretty cute.”

She was world renowned for her bossiness, writing, organization, cooking, gardening, and flower arranging talent. But mostly for her service to anyone in need. She fed, clothed, drove, advised, tutored, and supported anyone who needed it (and probably lots that didn’t) whether they were family, friend or stranger. She made everyone feel like they were a part of our already huge family and sprinkled in words of wisdom with her love. There was a special place in her heart for the Tran family, who were refugees from Vietnam. She spearheaded the effort for Aldersgate to sponsor them and worked day and night to help them successfully settle into American life. She even risked life and limb while Duc was learning to drive but only knew a few words of English like “STOP!”

Her “Mama salsa” is famous across the country and her peanut brittle was known to incite riots in families every Christmas. She was eating “clean” before it was cool. She would often chronicle her low fat, low salt, healthy recipes in her letters to us. She made the best chili, butterbeans, dressing and milk gravy in the entire world and no amount of experiments can seem to recreate them even with her recipes in hand. She remembered everyone’s favorite food or dish and made sure she had 12 pounds of it when you were visiting and that you left with all of it neatly packed in Tupperware.

In Greenville mom and dad were so lucky to find the best neighborhood and still have some of the same neighbors 40+ years later. They also had wonderful lifelong church friends, The Griffiths, Haddons, Hunters and Fosters just to name a few. She loved to travel with them and went on vacations and to Elder Hostiles in Maine, California, New Orleans, South Dakota, and Georgia. She would send us postcards that bragged “and we’re the youngest ones here!” She worked at Spencer Pest control “The Bug House” until she retired and could identify a plethora of bugs and also manage to make people feel comfortable when they called to report something like bats or “crabs” or roaches in their house.

She loved language and reading and was quite a writer. There wasn’t a crossword puzzle in the world she couldn’t conquer while watching TV. She made us look up words in the dictionary when we couldn’t spell them and read a million stories to us over the years. Our family traded books like currency and even had our own rating system. She interviewed her own mom and wrote a book called “Granny’s Gleanings” with all her stories and printed it for the family.

She wrote real letters, chronicling the daily goings on of the neighbors, family members, school and church families and never forgot to send a birthday card or holiday card. Her gift packages were legend at the College of Charleston. Pluggers was her favorite cartoon and there was almost always a clipped one in every letter. Pluggers was a cartoon about family-loving, work-embracing animals, most of whom wear their salt-of-the-earth qualities on the sleeve. Which pretty much describes her. Just like Pluggers, her favorite fashion label was Clearance and she saved pieces of foil and Ziploc bags for decades.

She cherished her family most of all and was tireless in her devotion to them in thought, word and deed. She never let an opportunity pass to tell us that we were the joy of her life. Family reunions with her sisters and brothers and yearly beach trips to Isle of Palms were her favorite. There’s nothing she liked better than everyone eating a home cooked meal together around a big table or playing games or telling stories. She was the queen of practical jokes too. Who short sheeted the bed or froze your bra? Barbara.

One of her favorite past times was “junking” or cruising the local garage sales looking for the perfect chair for your house or jacket or pot or something for anyone in need. She saw the treasure in the trash. The Aldersgate church garage sale was truly her calling. I’m pretty sure she has already organized one in heaven.

She loved traditions and holidays. It would take her 3-4 weeks to get the house decorated for Christmas with her huge collection of Santa Clauses. And we will always remember the pitiful Charlie Brown Christmas tree she bought from a 16 year old pregnant girl on the side of the road. It didn’t have a good side. And years later there were the crazy blinking red lights that she got on a clearance sale. She loved to shop throughout the year for Christmas gifts and was famous for losing them in the house (Easter eggs too)

Her garden was her happy place and she loved walking in the woods and her passion was infectious. Nothing is better than a stroll with her in the woods or down the beach while she teaches you the names of every bird or shell and manages to rescue a horseshoe crab along the way. One of her favorite gifts was a gardening stool she could sit on while working in her beautiful garden. If you came to the house, you had to take her garden tours through the veggies and flowers and could never leave the house empty handed…a flower, a jar of pickles, or a tomato would find its way home with you despite any protests.

She shared her plants with us all. We see her in the spring crocuses and mountains of daffodils she planted and irises that came from her yard or her mom’s yard. Not sure how we will make it through the spring without her “Weed, not a weed?” hotline.

If you love her like we do and want to honor this life well lived, call someone in your family and get together, plant a flower for someone, volunteer at a soup kitchen or ask a neighbor over for dinner, write a real letter to a friend, or just take a walk in nature.

"When your mom dies you're the best memory of her. Everything you do is a memory of her." ~ Alice Oswalt, age 7

Barbara-isms

“I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck”

“Nothing good ever happens after midnight…be home before that”

Mom, I need money. “How about a dollar 2.98”

“I love you little, I love you big, I love you like a little fat pig”