Wife, Parent, teacher, student, and gardener were how Barbara Shelton Snyder spent her unselfish adulthood. She lived her life with compassionate generosity, creativity, a strong independent spirit, and a genuine affection for life-long learning. She was born in West Palm Beach, Florida on May 31, 1936 and passed away suddenly at home on July 8, 2018. For 82 years, she showed us how to be duly diligent, persistent, and kind to others including strangers who often quickly became her friends.
As a concerned, caring and devoted teacher, she immensely enjoyed her study abroad program, traveling to England learning new techniques to teach reading to her Second Grade Students. As a retired teacher, she set about to explore topics as diverse as Florida State courses about North Florida environment and wildlife, and most recently, Traditional Southern Gospel Music.
Barbara and her husband Don supported their children throughout their lives together. They relished watching their son Donny play football at Godby High School and encouraged him in his studies in college. Barbara and her husband supported their daughter Cindy’s musical interests, and education as well.
Barbara loved taking summer family vacations to visit her all of her relatives in Western Kentucky, especially her grandfather and grandmother, learning about her family’s history while there. Other memories included visiting her daughter in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland while getting to know her granddaughter. She made multiple trips to North Carolina and Illinois getting to know her grandson as well. She was very close to her brother, Dr. Samuel Viron Shelton, who taught Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. She delighted in sharing stories about his many achievements, including designing the Olympic Torch used from 1996-2008.
Perhaps Barbara’s most charming and endearing qualities were lively conversation and entertaining stories. Her quality of warm conversational ease led her to very close friends, some life-long, others more recent, but with all of whom she enjoyed shared interests, short trips to local sites, favorite restaurants, plays, museums, and historic homes.
Barbara is survived by her two children, Donald Martin Snyder Jr., and Cindy Snyder Moore, her grandchildren Johannah Mahfood, Melinda Kristen Kordesh, and Sgt. Robert Alexander Moore USMC.
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