Barbara Ella Windley

Barbara Ella Windley, 88, of Oxford, North Carolina, passed away peacefully on Thursday, February 5, 2026. Born in the Beckwith Community in Beaufort County, NC, she was the daughter of the late Charles Sylvester “Wes” Windley and Ella Keech Windley and was the youngest of their six children. Her childhood was filled with loving memories as well as the responsibilities that came with running a farm, feeding the animals and helping her mom cook. She also worked in the family’s country store, claiming that her father lost money because she helped herself to all of the candy, drinks and ice cream that she wanted. She had that “sweet tooth” throughout her life, with a special affinity for Hershey’s Kisses.

She graduated from Bath High School in 1955 and began her studies at East Carolina College that fall. In 1958, she graduated college with a Batchelor of Science degree in Social Studies and Music and quickly secured a public-school music teaching job in Lenior County. After her marriage to John Robert “Bob” Howell, they lived in Greenville, North Carolina, where she worked as a child welfare worker, handling adoption and foster home supervision with the Pitt County Department of Social Services. She would then return to East Carolina College to obtain her Masters in Education degree in Guidance and Counseling. Following a move to Tarboro, North Carolina, she worked part-time with the Edgecombe County Department of Social Services in the same position that she had in Pitt County.

In 1968, she moved to Oxford, where she began working full-time as a guidance counselor with Granville County Schools at Mary Potter Middle School and then Northern Granville Middle School until her retirement in 2002. She loved working with students and teachers. She started the “Ram Gram” award at Mary Potter and the Peer Helpers program at Northern Granville. She was also a liaison to the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford. Her patience and compassion helped many students navigate the formative and sometimes challenging years of middle school.

After she retired, Barbara remained active. She was a voracious reader of Danielle Steel books, researched family genealogy and doted on her pugs. She also spent as much time as she could working in her yard and tending to her beautiful flower beds, earning her the City of Oxford Yard of the Month in September, 2009.

Family was the most important part of her life. In raising her two daughters, she instilled the values of family, caring for others, education, responsibility and giving their best as those were the values her parents instilled in her. She also passed those values to her grandchildren, who affectionately called her “MaMa.” She relished the chance to babysit them and was a regular attendee at their ball games, band concerts, dance recitals, and award ceremonies.

Remaining to cherish Barbara’s memory are her daughters, Suellen Howell McCauley (Vince) of Chapel Hill, NC, and Nancy Howell Wilkinson (Chance) of Oxford, NC; her grandsons, Alexander Wilkinson, Matthew Wilkinson, and Maxwell McCauley; her granddaughters, Abigail McCauley Rankin (AJ) and Emily Wilkinson, and her nieces and nephews. She is also survived by her beloved pug, Charlie, who is now a part of the Wilkinson family. Barbara was predeceased by her parents, Charles Sylvester “Wes” Windley and Ella Keech Windley; sisters and their husbands, Lucille and James Windley, Ethial and Otis Stell, Pinear Mae and Reverend Ralph Epps, Ellene and Case VanWyk; and her brother Charles “C.B” Windley, Sr., and wife, Jean Windley.

The family would like to express their appreciation to Lisa Terry, and the staff at the Dunmore Memory Care Unit, Liberty Home Care & Hospice, Gentry-Newell & Vaughn and Paul Funeral Home for their care, compassion, and support.

A funeral service will be held on Monday, February 9, 2026, at Paul Funeral Home in Washington, North Carolina, with Visitation at 1:00 PM and Service at 2:00 PM. Burial will follow in Pamlico Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Granville County Animal Shelter, 515 New Commerce Drive, Oxford, North Carolina, 27565, to further honor her love for animals or to the Alzheimer’s Association online at alz.org so that we can continue to help find a cure for this terrible disease.