Barbara Jane (Lowe) Van Dyn

Barbara Jane (Lowe) Van Dyne passed away Friday, October 24, 2025 in Los Angeles CA at the age of 93. She was the only child of Charles M. Lowe, and Edith M. (Shuman) Lowe. Kind, gracious, and soft spoken, in a world often at odds with these values, she welcomed difference by encompassing and loving people from all walks of life and cultures. Born in the small town of New Martinsville WV, on January 14, 1932, she became the central focus of her loving family in nearby rural Jacksonburg and subsequently Pine Grove WV of central Wetzel County. Always enthusiastic, young Barbara was surrounded by loving friends and encouraging teachers. Musically inclined, she studied piano and flute. Cheerleading, a favorite school activity in her high school years, led to the introduction of a young sports enthusiast athlete and spectator, the handsome (her words) WWII veteran Donald W. Van Dyne also of Pine Grove WV. Six years her senior, he would soon become her husband in July of 1948. Early in their marriage while living in the state capital of Charleston WV, Barbara worked as a fashion model. Needing to return to her hometown for personal reasons, motherhood soon followed throughout the 1950’s with three children, Mark Lindell Van Dyne, Matthew Duane Van Dyne, and Lisa Ann Van Dyne. In the early to mid 1960’s, balancing wife, motherhood and homemaking, she pursued a career in education studying at West Virginia University. Soon working in the newly created Head Start program under the Johnson Administration, Barbara traveled to the far reaches of rural WV, encouraging less fortunate families to enroll their children in the program hoping to enrich young lives. In the 1970’s Barbara began an alternate career as a dental assistant, working to support the college studies of her children Matthew and Lisa, and to enhance the new family of her eldest son Mark, his wife Ellen (Wayne) Van Dyne, and their three children Kacie, Jessica, and Wesley. Retiring from this profession in the mid 1980’s, she resumed her love for volunteering (reminiscent of her early days as a den mother) by working with the local Garden Club, complimenting her passion for home gardening, homemaking, cooking, canning, and baking. Her happiest accomplishment came at the age of 64, parlaying those passions into the establishment of a restaurant in her hometown of Pine Grove. In a short period in early 1996 the doors of Barbara’s Country Café opened to success on April 1. With her love of cooking, baking and providing for others, patrons would come from miles around just to sample her signature Blackberry Cake. Within a few short years of the café opening, Barbara established an annual tradition (covered by the tri state area television stations and newspapers) of providing free meals to locals on Thanksgiving Day with the emphasis on the less fortunate. Along with her husband Don and the help of her employees and volunteers, meals were delivered to the infirm, incapacitated, and needy with loving donations by the public. Having excess funds, she coordinated with the area schools to provide winter coats for children in need. In autumn 2005 at the age of 73, Barbara joyfully catered a large party for a prominent LA law firm in the Hollywood Hills of southern California. Impressed by the detail of her homemade brand of cooking and baking, she declined offers by those in LA to cater subsequent affairs and instead returned to her love, Barbara’s Country Café. Soon after celebrating 72 years of marriage in 2018, with her three children, daughter in law, three grandchildren, their spouses Tiffany (Fitzwater) VanDyne, Robert Masters, and significant other James Haga, great grandchildren, Chase, Ryley and Sydney Van Dyne, along with many friends and neighbors, she became widowed. As her health diminished, she moved to Los Angeles/Studio City CA with her son Matthew in May of 2023. Barbara maintained her home outside of Pine Grove and stayed in touch with her two other acquired loving children, Debbie Springer and Jyl Kincade. In her final years, she loved making new friends in LA and keeping older friends close to her heart from her home state and abroad. Favorite outings in Los Angeles were often lunching and shopping at Bloomingdales and admiring the everchanging fashion which she dearly loved. Unassuming, she was often recognized by others in the large city of LA not only for her lifelong outward beauty, but also for the genuine beauty which emanated from her kind gracious and loving spirit. She became a great great grandmother from afar in 2024 with the birth of Jettson, the son of her great granddaughter Ryley and husband Hunter Forester. In her waning days, incapacitated, she tenderly said, “What I really miss is doing and providing for others.” Always accentuating the positive and seldom looking backward, she only embraced happy endings. Knowing she was nearing the end of her life, her last profound words were, “I am full of forgiveness if nothing else.” Chronically late for nearly every appointment throughout her life, her tardiness was welcomed this one last time as she soon approached the age of 94. Barbara was a member of the Pine Grove Christian Church. She is survived by the aforementioned three children, three grandchildren, three great grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Forever loved, she will be tremendously missed. Friends will be received on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at the Pine Grove Christian Church at 11:30 AM until the time of the service at 1:00 PM. Interment will follow at the Mannington Memorial Cemetery. Online condolences may be expressed at palmerfuneral.com.