Barbara Meetze

1946 - 2026

Barbara Anne Meetze passed away on February 6, 2026, at her residence in Andover, Massachusetts, with her daughter and caretakers by her side.



Barbara was born in Heath Springs, South Carolina, on August 11, 1946, to Murray O'Neil Meetze, a Carpenter, and Margaret Caroline (Harris) Meetze, a Home Economics teacher. She was Valedictorian of the Heath Springs High School class of 1964 and went on to earn her Bachelors of Arts in Education at the University of South Carolina, where she was also a member of Zeta Tau Alpha social fraternity and Kappa Delta Epsilon honorary education sorority. For nearly 30 years, Barbara was a Librarian at South Mecklenburg High School, where she helped students begin the literary magazine Dancing on the Moon in the early 1990s. A published writer herself, Barbara was nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in 1995 for her short story "Remnant on This Earth".



An ebullient, creative, welcoming spirit, Barbara filled every space she occupied. She surrounded herself with beautiful things–every shelf and surface a tableau of books and pottery and pictures, her walls lined with overflowing bookshelves, her gardens spilling with wild color. She filled volumes of journals and pages and pages of poetry, short stories, essays, and one unpublished novel. A restless soul, she loved deeply and laughed joyfully.



Barbara leaves behind her daughter Megan (Long), son-in-law Seth Laskarzewski, and grandchildren Zachary and Autumn "AJ" Laskarzewski, of Somerville, Massachusetts; her sister Linda Meetze Lucas of Lancaster, South Carolina; her brother Dr. Russell Meetze of Vero Beach, Florida; her brother and sister-in-law Dr. William "Bill" and Karen (Catoe) Meetze, of Greenville, North Carolina; and nieces, nephews, and friends spread from the Carolinas to the Pacific Northwest. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Murray O'Neil "Skip" Meetze, Jr.



A Celebration of Life gathering will be held on Saturday, April 25, from 1:00-4:00 at The Timber Raille, York, South Carolina. In lieu of flowers, charitable donations in Barbara's honor can be made to Cure PSP at www.psp.org.