Barba Covington McCarty (age 78) passed from this earth on July 29, 2026, in West Texas, where she lived for the last 2 years and 4 months of her life.
Barba was the fifth child of six born to Alford Burley Covington and Charlsie Ann Burkett Covington, born on March 19, 1948, in Lamar County near Biardstown, Texas.
Her cremains will be interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in western Lamar County on August 8, 2026, at 10:00 am.
Barba was the granddaughter of William Harvey Burkett and Roxie Ann Fagan Burkett and King David Covington and Fannie Mae Owens Covington, all of Lamar County, Texas. Her great-grandparents were George Washington Covington and Mary Kennedy Covington, Samuel A. Owens and Margaret Owens and Issac Jefferson Burkett and Nancy Ann Sweeden and James Jefferson Fagan and Martha Ann McMillan.
She is survived by her sister: Mamie Gay of Amarillo; Niece, Peggy and husband Dale of Amarillo, Nephew, Steve Cole of Broken Bow, Great Niece Meghan Weaver and husband Sean and their children Dakota, Preston and Faith of Bonham, Niece, Lynda Covington Whitworth of Colorado, Niece, Destiny Newell Brown and husband Kurt of Seminole, Texas and their children Kameron and Delaney and several other nieces and nephews. Barba had longtime friends that were her family here in Paris – Phyllis Larkin Brumley and her family, of Tigertown, a friend since 1963.
Barba was preceded in death by her mother in 1960 and her father in 1971, a brother TJ Covington, and sisters Marjorie Mooney, Beverly Covington, and Betty Cole.
She graduated from Paris High School in the class of 1966 and attended Paris Junior College. She worked as a long-distance operator at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, and afterwards she worked the switchboard at McCuistion Medical Center in Paris. Later she was assistant chief deputy and civil law clerk in the Lamar County Clerk’s Office, a job she dearly loved but had to retire early due to end-stage liver disease in 1993. However, she was blessed with 25 years of bonus life and living after a liver transplant she received in October 2000.
After recovering from that lengthy illness and complications, she was not idle. She caught up on the life she had missed during all those years. She was an author of four books. Her hobbies included what she called driven- shoot photography, ever-so-often genealogy, and coordinating grade school and high school reunions and events, and as much traveling as she could find someone to go with her without knowing where she was going or when she was coming back. She loved road trips-not on Interstate highways. A favorite saying of hers was, “It’s too hard to do a U-turn to take a photo on an Interstate.”
Barba was an advocate for organ donation, often saying, “You and your loved ones are MANY more times apt to NEED an organ than you-and your loved ones-are to be able to DONATE an organ. You have to die just right to get to be a donor and bless people with your organs. It is particularly important to tell your family you want to be an organ donor. The family makes it happen.”
Memorials in her honor may be made to: Simmons Transplant Institute,
Baylor University Medical Center, 410 Worth Street, Dallas, TX, 75246.
