Candace Gammino-Barber

1953 - 2025

SOUTH COUNTY, RI- After a brief illness, Mary Candace [Candy] Barber, ne Gammino died peacefully at South County Hospital on Wednesday surrounded by friends who she cherished dearly. Candy, a life-long resident of South County, was born in Providence, RI on September 11, 1953 to the late Elynore Manchester Gammino and Thomas Anthony Gammino, Sr. of Wakefield. She graduated from Elmhurst Academy of the Sacred Heart in Portsmouth and attended the University of Rhode Island. She was happily married for 34 years to the love of her life, Russ Barber a fisherman and avid golfer, who pre-deceased her in 2019.

Candy was perhaps most well known as the owner of Bartone Jewelry in Wakefield, where she expressed her creativity designing and selling jewelry as a certified gemologist and master jeweler for over 40 years.

She loved helping people celebrate life's milestones: from birthdays to First Communions to engagements and marriages, and her clients loved, trusted and appreciated her for it. Greeting most visitors with a booming Hey Hon!, Candy was liberal with the Milk Bones for any dog, and root beer barrel candies for their humans. She was always game for a funny story or Dad-joke and offered great advice on transforming heirloom jewelry into meaningful and wearable pieces.

Her interest in "rocks" started young: when they weren't horsing around at Bonnet Shores Beach, she and her cousin Pattie Troy (ne Holt) went rock hunting for "silver" [micah] in the fields around her childhood home on Torrey Rd. They later shared an apartment and many adventures, including a cross-country trek in 1972 during which Candy navigated them using old-school Rand McNally maps to the Grand

Canyon, Red Rock, and of course, Las Vegas...

Outside of the jewelry store, Candy could give The Antiques Road Show a run for its money, particularly when it came to antique watches and clocks. Cuckoos were her favorite and she secretly delighted in driving guests a bit batty with the synchronized chiming of dozens in her living room. She also had a fondness for penny slots, though she swore her friends to secrecy on that one... A dog lover throughout her life, Candy was the doting parent to a parade of colorful canines including Leif the Norwegian Elkhound, Sinbad the Alaskan Malamute, Medusa the Golden Retriever and Dante the black Lab, aptly named for his talents as a hell-raiser.

She is survived by an older brother Wayne R. Minnick of Lake Park, Florida, a younger brother, Thomas A, Gammino Jr, of Albuquerque, NM and sister Victoria M Gammino of Newport, RI. Candy will forever be loved and missed deeply by her family and closest friends. At Candy's request, no services will be held at this time. In lieu of flowers, a donation to any of the following entities in her name would make her smile: The Wildlife Clinic of Rhode Island at 2865 Tower Hill Rd in Saunderstown, RI; St Francis of Assisi Church, Wakefield, RI 02879; Potter League, Middletown, RI; Save-A-Lab Rescue.