Marina Barber Obituary

Marina Barber

September 27, 1947 - January 22, 2025

Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Marina Blackmore Barber, longtime resident of Chapel Hill, died January 22, 2025. As a girl on the farm out from Warsaw, North Carolina, Marina Blackmore loved tromping through the backwoods with her father Robert. They might get into a skiff for fishing-Marina grew up with a paddle or tiller in her hand-or they might make their way through marshy muck in high boots. Her mother Ruby marveled then at Marina's intrepid verve, just as she would years later admire Marina's grace and fashionable style. From the family cottage on Virginia Creek Marina loved to go crabbing and water skiing-or anything else on the water. At Chapel Hill, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees, gaining skill and expertise in speech communication that she put to work for years for the benefit of grateful students-undergraduates at Peace College, physicians at UNC, and many, many others. She married Wade Barber in 1976 and moved to Pittsboro where Wade practiced law. Together they made a home just up the street from the courthouse, in the house where Wade grew up. The family grew, with the births of daughters Claire and Elizabeth. It was a warm home, open to friends and neighbors. Marina and Wade moved to Greenwood Road in Chapel Hill where they lived for nearly three decades. It was a great place for dinners with friends around the big table in the dining room with the red walls. It made political discussions inevitable. Importantly, it was convenient to the Smith Center, where Marina avidly cheered on the Tarheels. Marina loved traveling off the beaten path and planned many family trips abroad, long before the ease that the internet provided. They camped with Claire and Liz in the Andes and sailed on Jordan Lake, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Abaco islands. They snorkeled in the clear waters of the Indian Ocean and the rough currents of Devil's Crown – where she let the girls swim with white tipped sharks but drew the line when hammerheads appeared. She loved to tell the story of a monkey that mimicked her as she sat and wrote postcards in Kenya, and when Liz was given the honor of piloting the boat across the Nile river in Luxor. Wade passed away in 2022 and as Marina suffered health reversals she moved to Carolina Meadows, between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro. In their last few years, Marina and Wade had the great good fortune of the assistance, companionship, and dedicated care of Carmen Matencio Justiniani. The family wishes to express their eternal gratitude to Carmen. Marina is survived by Claire Fenton and grandchildren Maayan, Simi, Yaakov, and Fanya Fenton; by Liz Barber, Danny Spiegel, and grandchildren Levi and Sam Spiegel; by James Riley; by her sister Jane McClanhan; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. The family held a small memorial service. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Marina's honor to the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina at PO Box 28004 Raleigh NC 27611. Donaldson Funeral Home & Crematory is honored to serve the Barber family.