Barbara Sloan Stribling Davis died Thursday, April 3, 2025, at her home in Oxford, Mississippi.
The first of three girls, she was born January 5, 1941, to John Hannah Sloan and Barbara Bennett Sloan of Jackson, Mississippi.
After graduating from Jackson’s Murrah High School in 1959, she pursued a degree in psychology at Louisiana State University, where she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She did not actually receive her degree, resolutely deciding to skip her final exams to attend her future husband’s graduation at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1963.
Barbara and Roger Wilson Stribling, Jr., were married the following June at Central Presbyterian Church in Jackson. They soon welcomed three daughters and, eventually, a son.
Her husband’s life was cut short in 1975 when he was killed in a plane crash in Hilton Head, South Carolina. She persevered, keeping his memory alive for her children for years to come.
She found love again in 1981, marrying Dr. J.T. Davis, Jr., of Memphis, Tennessee. The new blended family settled in Memphis, where she discovered new passions and new friends. The couple eventually moved to Oxford, where they would spend the rest of their lives.
Barbara was beloved by her family and friends for her generosity, her tenderness, her strength, and her ability to befriend anyone in whom she detected a sense of goodness. Each holiday season, she had a mental list of friends, family members, store clerks, and others to whom she would deliver her homemade powdered-sugar pecan cookies and a personal note of love and appreciation. She remembered significant events in other people’s lives and was genuinely interested in how they were coping or celebrating.
She is survived by her children Sloan Stribling Hunter of Oxford; Paige Stribling Recchia (Tony) of Greenwich, Connecticut; Roger Wilson Stribling III (Jennifer) of Madison, Mississippi; grandchildren Samuel Stribling Hunter (Mary Shields), Lilly McKay Hunter, Charles Bennett Recchia, Miles Stribling Recchia, John Wyatt Recchia, Olivia Sloan Recchia, Roger Wilson Stribling IV, Robert Bennett Stribling, and Celia Catherine Stribling; step-children Robin Davis Wilson of Atlanta, Georgia; Richard Swaim Davis (Leighanne) of Birmingham, Alabama; Alan Townsend Davis (Lauren) of New Orleans, Louisiana; and their children.
Barbara was especially enamored of her two great-grandchildren, Anne Stribling Hunter and Charles Davis Hunter, who adored their Memommie.
She is also survived by her sisters, Patricia Mae Sloan of Jupiter, Florida, and Suzie Sloan Durbin of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husbands, son-in-law Kevin McKay Hunter, brother-in-law Michael William Durbin, and daughter Susan Stribling Dehmer.
Her funeral will be held Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. at Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, with a reception and visitation to follow. She will be inurned in the Northminster columbarium.
Contributions in Barbara’s memory can be made to Northminster Baptist Church or to SmileTrain to fund surgeries for children with cleft lip and palate.
