Barbara Joy Chapman Holton

After a short and acute illness, Barbara Holton died in the presence of family on January 20, 2025, at Centennial Medical Center. She was a resident of Nashville since 1977.
Born in Chicago in 1942, Barbara was a proud tomboy, riding her bike and playing outdoors rather than wearing dresses. She disliked the half-court basketball that the girls of the 1950s were expected to play. She was a member of her college tennis team. Tall girls at the time were considered odd but she loved it even if she never admitted to being 6 feet tall. She was a good bowler and once bested a date at a bowling match to make sure he never called her for another date.
Barbara started out to be an English teacher, common for young women at the time, but in the late 1960s she and her college friend Lynn moved to DC. Barbara worked for Encyclopedia Brittanica, and she was "Google before Google" her job being to research answers to questions, in the Library of Congress, sent in by subscribers.
In DC she met a skinny North Carolina native named Mickey. They were married for 56 years. In the early 1970s, Barbara became one of the first of the new profession of paralegals, and she worked as one for nearly 40 years. Thirty-five of those years were spent at Gullett, Sanford, Robinson and Martin in Nashville. Barbara was never a fan of technology but adapted to VCRs, satellite TV and iPads. She was the last of the flip-version "dumb phone" owners, and a devoted dog mom to Sadie. She had close friendships with her college friendship circle, and with her "coven" of coworkers at Gullet Sanford Robinson and Martin. She was a Jeopardy fan, an avid jigsaw puzzler and loved a good, competitive game of Scrabble.
Barbara is predeceased by her parents, Bernice Butkus Chapman and Kenneth Henderson Chapman, both of Chicago. She is survived by her husband, Mickey; son, Jim and her beloved daughter-in-law, Jennifer; her sister, Judy Zmudzinski (Tom) of Oxon Hill, Maryland; grandsons, William "Liam" Holton of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Calvin James Holton of Florida; Anna Cooper of Murfreesboro, Marshall B. Cooper (Star Holmes) of Nashville; and her fellow mother-in-law in crime, Rosemary S. Ragan, Murfreesboro.
Barbara will be remembered on February 1, 2025, at Woodbine Funeral Home, Hickory Chapel, 5852 Nolensville Road, Nashville. Visitation with family will be from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. with a memorial service to follow. There will be no interment.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to
Tennessee Beagle Rescue https://beagle.rescueme.org/tennessee