Barbara was the 6th of 9 children, and the last surviving of her first generation, East Slavic parents. She lived her first nine decades in Western Pennsylvania, mostly in Clarion with her husband of 59 years, Charles Speelman, who passed in 1997. After the loss of her youngest daughter in 2009 she left for Oregon to be with her daughter Barbara.

She will be laid to rest in Western Pennsylvania alongside her departed husband and youngest daughter