Barbara Frances Nixon, of Celebration, Florida, and Silver Spring, Maryland, passed from this life on Friday, April 17, 2020, at Howard County General Hospital in Columbia, Maryland.
1942-2020
Born on November 3, 1942, in Cape May Court House, New Jersey, she was the daughter of the late Francis Kline and Lola Mae (Ryder) Benson and is survived by step-father Richard Benson.
She was the loving wife of Walter Jay Nixon, her husband of 51 years. She is also survived by two children, Matthew Nixon (Kimberly), Cara Stenfors (Mika), and six grandchildren: Liam, Beck, Lilyana, Layla, Lola, and Zachary.
She graduated from Blue Mountain Academy, Hamburg, Pennsylvania, in 1961 and earned a B.S. in Home Economics at Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University), Takoma Park, Maryland, in 1967.
During her college years, she worked part-time in the U.S. Capitol Building, selling books from a lobby kiosk where she met many prominent Senators and Representatives of that era.
Her first full-time job was as a dental assistant to Dr. Walter Dorn, in Takoma Park. She worked as a Social Service Representative for the District of Columbia from 1970 to 1976 at Freedman’s Hospital (now Howard University Hospital), Providence Hospital, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. In February of 1976, she became a full-time mother and homemaker.
Later in life, she studied to be an electrologist and obtained her State of Maryland license in 1992. She set up a salon in the lower level of her home and practiced until 2006. She was a member of the American Electrologist Association and the Maryland Association of Professional Electrologists.
Barbara and Jay have attended the Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, since 1977. Memorial donations in Barbara’s name can be made by mail to Spencerville Adventist Academy, 2502 Spencerville Road, Spencerville, MD 20868.