A Homegoing Celebration for Mrs. Barbara Edwina Waithe of Tampa, Florida who passed away on Monday, August 17, 2020 will be held Thursday, August 27th, 11:00 a.m. at Grace Family Church, 8610 Temple Terrace Highway., Pastor Roy Taylor and Pastor Dale Brooks, officiating. The interment will be held in Garden of Memories Cemetery.

Barbara Edwina Waithe, mother, prayer warrior, advisor, truth-teller, and friend, was born to Kathleen and Edward Lane on June 11, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts. When Barbara was one year of age, her mother's untimely death led her and her older sister, Ellenor, to move to Barbados, West Indies, to live with her beloved paternal grandmother, Louise Worrell.  While there, she worked in the family store, honing her skills as a master seamstress, and developed a life-long love for helping others.  Later as an adolescent and young adult, her talents allowed her to assist her grandmother's friends. 

At the age of 18, Barbara returned to Boston to live with her Aunt Maude, where she was able to obtain a job working in factories.  When Barbara learned her grandmother's health was declining, she returned to care for her. It was this return that made her a legend. She became wildly popular for sewing fashion and wedding dresses with intricate appliques, bathing suits, undergarments, and pattern making.  After the passing of her grandmother, she moved to New York to live with her sister.  During the midst of her successful trade, she met and married the love of her life, the late Mr. Ralph Waithe, Sr. To this union were born Joycelyn Edwina and Ralph, Jr.

After the children became toddlers, Barbara attended and completed nursing school. Shortly after that, Ralph Sr. moved the family to Florida; Barbara quickly obtained employment at University Community Hospital (now Advent Health), She was one of two first African American nurses hired, and she remained there until her retirement in the 1990s.

Her love of Barbados was evident in her culinary skills, where she hosted everyone to join her for talks around the table.  If you were privileged to meet her, she was not shy about sharing her faith in Christ and the love He has for us.  That love of Christ shone so brightly that in addition to her own two children she raised and considered family a whole host of others represented in the following families:  Best, Booth, Culpepper, Davis, Elbert, Elcock, Felix, Floyd, Graves, Green, Grazette, Innis, Joseph, LaBrache, Mahon, Mosely, Principe, Reid, Rollock, Samuel, Stoltzfoos, Thompson, White, and Wright. 

She leaves to cherish fond memories: her children, Joycelyn E. and Ralph Jr., stepchildren, Marcia Austin (New York) and Anthony Austin (Barbados); sister-in-law, Sybil Durant; (Barbados) grandchildren, Cordia Ward (Barbados), Adbul Austin (New York) and Vickie Durant (Barbados); cousins, Sandra Wynn (Warren), David Bennett, George Bennett, Judith Grazette (Gregory); and a host of other sorrowing family and friends..

The visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church. We are following the CDC guidelines.