Barbara Salls Benson passed at home on March 13, 2023. She was seventy-four years old. Born in Auborn, New York, to Ruth Elizabeth Bailey and Lawrence Merril Salls, Barbara lived most of her life in Florida. Her last years were in Chestertown, Maryland, a town that brought a new climate, new birds, new plants, and new adventures.

As a child Barbara lived in Homestead and Miami, Florida, close to her maternal grandmother's family. If the genes for persistence and gardening can be passed in DNA, she clearly inherited her grandmother's knack for growing green things under difficult conditions. Her grandmother—who was independent-minded and farmer enough to grow thriving plants in coquina—grew the family's food and farmed Easter lilies while her husband was away on construction jobs. Barbara was always ready with stories of her grandmother's small farm, sleepovers with grandma, and how to eat homegrown south-Florida fruits like Monstera deliciosa.

With her four sisters (Penny, Bonnie, Linda, and Jeannie), Barbara lived in a rambunctious household. Her father would drink coffee, joke with the girls, then then disappear to his work shed for some quiet and his hidden cigarettes. Barbara's mother, largely outmatched by the combined energy of the five girls, managed to keep the daughters entertained through any and every church activity and exclusively G-rated movies. After a household of Bensons moved in next door, playmates would eventually become family when she married the eldest Benson son, Vernon. Their courtship had a slow start. He came home on leave from the Coast Guard and didn't want to meet "all those Salls girls." So taking matters into her own hands, she climbed behind the wheel of his Corvette Stingray while he was working on the engine. Very forward for a girl who only watched G-rated movies!

Barbara and Vern married on March 21, 1970 and had a long marriage with remarkably little friction. She did, however, object to the table saw that he assembled in the kitchen nook while she was in the hospital for the birth of their daughter. He would later object to her fabric collection. They were devoted to each other for the rest of their lives, domestic squabbles and early-career money challenges no match for their abiding love.

She had one daughter, Jennifer, in 1972; soon after, and the family would move to Jacksonville, Florida, where Barbara lived most of her adult life. Faced with a high-energy daughter, she regretfully abandoned notions of smocked dresses or ruffles and decided to channel tom-boy energy into long walks, splashing in the sandy creek behind the house, and eventual days at a horse barn. In these years Barbara turned her own energy to skills and hobbies that enriched their home—cooking, baking, fabric crafts, gardening, and garage sales. Following her grandmother's example, she found a way to access an empty field and planted a two-acre vegetable garden with a neighbor-friend. She developed an eye for antiques, which became a whole new hobby: Saturday night antique auctions became dates night with Vern. Her yard became ever more colorful as her flowering plants and shrubs matured.

Gillian Benson-Totherow is Barbara's one granddaughter. After Vern passed in 2010, Barbara moved north to Chestertown, Maryland in 2017, seeking to be close to Jennifer and Gillian. She found a delightful house with plenty of room to garden, a view of a pond and water fowl, and neighbors who became friends. When not doing grandma-things, Barbara had a whole new range of plants with which to experiment. Daffodils, tulips, irises, daylilies, rudbeckias, and hydrangeas figured heavily into the new yard, as well as peaches and other fruiting trees. Her brother-in-law, Mark Benson, was indulgent enough to spend spring and fall helping to improve the garden, trim fruit trees, frame and enclose blueberry bushes, and shovel mountains of mulch. Her back porch was her favorite location for phone calls with her older sister, Penny Calhoun, her sister-in-law, Mary Ann Benson, and long-time friend, Heidi Mann.

Barbara Salls Benson passed in her Chestertown home with the background sounds of spring birds and family sitting next to her. She is survived by her daughter Jennifer Benson, granddaughter Gillian Benson-Totherow, three sisters Penny, Linda, and Jeannie, and many cousins, in-laws, nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held April 2, 3pm at the Galena Funeral Home of Stephen L. Schaech, 118 W. Cross Street, Galena, Maryland. Please join us dressed in spring colors to match Barbara's love of flowering plants. In lieu of cut flowers, consider sending a donation to the Kent County Community Food Pantry https://kentfoodpantry.org/donate/ in Barbara's name.