Melba Boling Callaway

1939 - 2025

Melba Boling Callaway

October 4, 1939 - August 19, 2025

Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina - Melba Boling (Barberree) Callaway, age 85 of Fuquay Varina, North Carolina and formerly from Alexandria, Virginia passed into the presence of the Lord on August 19, 2025. Melba is survived by her daughter, Mellonie Boling Saunders and her son, Barry Lee Boling. Three granddaughters, Blair Boling, Kayla Boling and Hannah Boling and a large group of nieces and nephews. She is survived by a sister, Sheila Lundy of Crestview, Florida. She was preceded in death by her husband Edward M. Boling, her second husband William Thomas Callaway and her oldest son, Edward Keith Boling.

Melba was born in Baker, Florida on October 4, 1939, to Dewey Lee and Erie Mae Spears Barberree. Melba had a distinguished 34-year career with the Federal Government starting in 1961 with the Army Corps of Engineers at Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota. When she arrived in Arlington, Virginia and the Pentagon she served as a Secretary to several division Chiefs including the Chief, European Division, J-5, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In OSD, Melba worked as Secretary for the Principal Deputy Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and the DASD for Legislative Affairs. She then was privileged to serve as Personal and confidential Assistant to seven Deputy Secretaries of Defense and as an Executive Assistant to two Secretaries of Defense from 1974 to 1997. During her career she was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service for Department of Defense Award, the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal with 1st Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Medal for Outstanding Public Service with 1st Oak Leaf Cluster. Following retirement from the Department of Defense she worked for seven years as the Executive Assistant to the Chairman and CEO of General Dynamics Corporation, Nicholas Chabraja.

In 2011 Melba moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to be closer to her son and family. She served at the local and state level of The Gideons International Association in a membership that began with her husband in 1976.

Visitation will be held on August 29 from 4:00pm to 7:00PM and Funeral on August 30 at 11:00AM with Reception following, at the Apex Funeral Home in Apex, North Carolina. Lunch will be served at the reception.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Gideons International Association at P.O. Box 1512, Cary, NC 27512-1512. www.gideons.org.

Melba will be laid to rest next to her husband at the National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia.