Obituary of Barbara Jean Antley

Barbara Jean Antley, 66, of Arlington, Virginia, died December 29, 2020, in the company of her husband and other family members after being hospitalized Christmas morning for complications of cancer.

Barbara is survived by her devoted husband of more than 30 years, Michael Yancey; her daughter Emily Steele (Michael) of Fredericksburg, VA; her son Zachary A. Yancey of Arlington, Virginia; and her grandchildren, Harper and Jackson Steele.  She is also survived by her father, Eugene B. Antley; her sister, Corinne M. Antley; and her brother Bruce S. Antley (Monica), all of Arlington, Virginia; numerous nieces and nephews; and a legion of cousins and devoted friends.  Barbara was predeceased by her mother, Dolores Stephan Antley.

Barbara was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived in seven states the first 13 years of her life, as her father (initially an elementary and junior high teacher and ultimately a college professor) moved the family from Mississippi to Georgia and then to South Carolina, California, Oregon, and Arkansas before settling in western Pennsylvania where Barbara attended high school (Sharpsville) and college (Indiana University of Pennsylvania).  Barbara earned a Bachelor’s degree in criminology from IUP and a Master’s degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University.

In the 1980s, Barbara began working as a social worker for Fairfax County Virginia.  She ultimately became Division Director, Adult and Aging, of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services, a position she held until her retirement in January, 2020.  As Director, Barbara was described as “an innovative administrator who always advocated for those who needed help and could manage staff to deliver superior services that resulted in real outcomes and improved lives.” 

Barbara’s responsibilities ranged from supervising a division of 170 employees and lobbying the Virginia State Legislature for funding for services for the aging to venturing out in the middle of the night to operate disaster relief shelters for local residents — work for which she received an award from Fairfax County.  Merni Fitzgerald, former Public Affairs Director for Fairfax County, who worked with Barbara during many countywide emergencies said, “a more caring person will never be found.”

Among the many initiatives that Barbara helped create or implement during her tenure as Division Director for Adult and Aging Services were the Financial Exploitation Prevention Task Force, designed to encourage partnership between local and federal law enforcement and county agencies to address situations of financial exploitation of Fairfax County residents; Cluster Care, an initiative to provide in-home services, volunteers, and home-delivered meals to eligible adults to permit them to live safely in their homes; and Medical Respite, a partnership to provide short-term care for people without homes who were ill or had surgery.  Barbara also was instrumental in the purchase and development of a new Fairfax County cemetery for indigent individuals and was featured in an article in The Washington Post about this effort.

From the time she was a small child, Barbara was viewed by others as a warrior who would readily take on any bully of any size to defend the rights of others who were younger or more vulnerable.  She carried this passion into adulthood.  Barbara had enormous admiration for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, not only for her record of defending the disenfranchised and for her ability as an octogenarian to execute a plank, but for her determination and success in battling cancer.  Following Ginsberg’s death on September 18, 2020, Barbara told her family, “it was devastating to long-term cancer survivors when she died.”

In retirement Barbara very much enjoyed her three weekly online yoga classes— including one taught by former colleague Diana Davidson, read voraciously (newspapers, history and mysteries), dabbled in a bit of cooking (mostly vegetarian), and participated in frequent Zoom calls with her friends.  Barbara’s heart, however, was her family.  She doted on her children and grandchildren and longed for the day when COVID would pass so she could hold her grandchildren again.

In turn, Barbara’s family relished her devotion and her off-duty persona: the fun/silly one in which she spontaneously danced to every Motown tune she heard, took her extended family on tours of offbeat sites such as a Pennsylvania pretzel factory, and invariably organized competitive “games” for family gatherings.  (One of the most memorable was a baby shower with a timed slalom race that required participants to sprint down her sister’s steep winding sidewalk and back up again while pushing a doll-filled baby carriage.  Observers unanimously agreed that it was simply “illegal” for her teen-aged son and nephew to lift the stroller above their heads to run with it.)

Barbara was first diagnosed with cancer in 2012.  She battled it as fiercely as she battled officials or regulations she deemed unfair.

Throughout her first bout with cancer and the associated chemotherapy and radiation, Barbara went to work every day.  She was hopeful for several years that she was done with it.  “I’m well,” she would repeatedly assure family and friends. 

When the cancer resurfaced in 2019, she again underwent chemotherapy, and felt well enough to travel by train with her sister to Charleston, South Carolina in February, and to get together with her beloved children and grandchildren frequently in a socially distanced manner while the weather stayed warm.  Even in the fall, when she wasn’t feeling as well and her hands were encumbered by neuropathy, she pressed on, writing and mailing hundreds of postcards urging North Carolina and Pennsylvania voters to get to the polls in November.

Barbara’s family requests that, in lieu of flowers, friends and family consider a contribution to the “Barbara Antley Fund” at the GCS Project (gcsproject.org), a Section 501(c)(3) charitable organization that funds medical research and education regarding certain rare, aggressive women's cancers.