Barbara June Glover

 Barbara June Glover of Raleigh, North Carolina was born in 1934 to parents Harold Warren Glover and Lyda Sawyer Glover, and passed away on Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at her residence.  Graveside Funeral Services will be 1:00PM, Friday, February 16, 2024 at Oakdale Cemetery in Little Washington, NC. 

 She spent her adolescent years in Little Washington, where she attended school and participated in the Washington Little Theater before relocating to Charlotte and, later, her long-time home of Raleigh.

Barbara was an avid lover of art and culture. She spent her life seeking out beauty and, where it was lacking, created her own. She had a storied career in the Charlotte Little Theater through the 1960s, including roles in The Irregular Verb to Love; Critic’s Choice; Say, Darling; and an award-winning turn as Andree, Gigi’s mother, in Gigi. Her artistic talents expressed themselves widely. She took classes in and experimented with everything from flower arranging to drawing to oil painting. Whatever the medium, her work always reflected who she was and what she saw to be special in the world. Barbara kept her mind sharp with books, nature documentaries, and puzzles. Intensely curious, she especially loved exploring topics such as hunting for lost cities, exploring shipwrecks, scientific discoveries, or anything else that seemed to defy easy answers.

 Barbara was fiercely independent. Though she never married, she was also never one to experience life alone—she had many treasured friendships that added entertainment and companionship to her life. Anna Avant Hughes was Barbara’s best friend for more than sixty years. Throughout the years, Barbara holidayed with the Hughes family regularly. Barbara’s yearly pilgrimage to the beach with Anna was one of her most treasured traditions. The Hughes made her a part of their family, and she considered them part of her own, always speaking proudly and lovingly of them.

Barbara was a true, beloved character. Her poise, self-assuredness, and appreciation for the finer things in life caused Barbara’s family to often joke that she should have been born into royalty. With her unflappable manners and sharp wit, she could have been taken straight from the pages of one of the mystery novels that she adored reading. Barbara also had a particular talent for dry comedy, often delivered at the most unexpected moments. A favorite family story involves a dinner outing where Barbara took the stage and invented dramatic, elaborate backstories for all of the strangers around them, turning them into characters that you might see in an Old Hollywood film. What started as a small comment gradually grew into an impromptu performance that pulled everyone present into her world, leaving them laughing until they cried. To her loved ones, this is an example of Barbara at her best: an unparalleled imagination and wit, coupled with a shrewd eye for human behavior and a flair for the dramatic. She will be greatly missed.

Barbara is preceded in death by her mother, Lyda Sawyer Glover; her father, Harold Glover; her brother, Carroll Glover; her sister-in-law, Shirley Dunston Glover; her niece, Kym Glover Bowden; her nephew, Steve Glover; and her best friend, Anna Avant Hughes. She is survived by her nephew-in-law, Andy Bowden Jr.; her nephew’s partner, Peggy Burchett; her great-nephew, Andy Bowden III; her great-nephew’s partner, Alicia Gaj; and her great-niece, Kate Bowden.

The family will receive friends following the Graveside Service on Friday, February 16, 2024 at Oakdale Cemetery in Little Washington, NC. 

Reviews of Barbara’s Performances:

“The only relief from side-splitting laughter that the audience got was the tender ballad, “A Beau for Meanwhile,” sung by Barbara Glover.” – Virginia Irwin, The Charlotte Observer

“Barbara Glover might be accused of over-acting as Gigi’s flighty, champagne-dizzy, comic-opera mother, but the audience didn’t concur: it gave her several special rounds of applause.” – Jane Roehrs, The Charlotte Observer (re: ‘Gigi’)

“Barbara Glover brightened early scenes with a show-stopping portrayal of Gigi’s champagne-happy mama, primed to peal the Bell Song from ‘Lakme’ on the least excuse.” – Dick Banks, The Charlotte Observer (re: ‘Gigi’)

“Laughs blistered out of laughs as the other people in the comedy laid it on thick.   Barbara Glover in boots and antsy pants did the real Theda Bara bit.  She and Ginger did full justice to some of Ben Douglas’s finest furs.” – Dick Banks, The Charlotte Observer (re: ‘Critic’s Choice’)

“Barbara Glover as Dirksen’s wife was properly wifely, and tearful over her husband’s neglect of her.  She was best when she was mad at him.” – Hannah Miller, The Charlotte Observer (re: ‘Say, Darling’)

“Barbara Glover on short notice has moved into the feminine lead like a professional, tossing out lines with more ease than anyone else on the stage.  She makes a human person of the animal-loving mother who finished a jail-term for bombing the establishment of a cruel furrier in time to find her family at home practically poached in metaphorical hot water.” – Dick Banks, The Charlotte Observer (re: ‘The Irregular Verb to Love’)