Frances Barringer Medlin

Frances Elizabeth Barringer Medlin passed away on October 30, 2020. She was born in Cabarrus County on March 4, 1927. Her parents were Paul Miller Barringer and Mary Harkey Barringer, from Mount Pleasant NC. She graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1944. She attended Pfeiffer College and graduated from the NC School of Cosmetology in Salisbury. She became a beautician and practiced for a brief time in Cabarrus County. She married Webster Medlin in 1947 and they subsequently moved to Chapel Hill where he was a student at UNC. While Webster pursued his law degree, Frances was employed by the UNC Registrar Department. After graduation, they returned to Cabarrus county. They had three sons; Steve Lemuel, Seth Omar, and Kim Leland. Frances was a member of Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church, where she was active in numerous church activities over the years, including the United Methodist Women, Parsonage Committee, Sunday school teacher, and youth counselor. She also assisted in local government activities as a volunteer. She and Webster won the Laity Service award in 1997. If you had the privilege of knowing Frances, you knew a truly happy person. It was impossible to be around her for long without catching her contagious positive personality. She was very well known throughout the area and was sometimes jokingly referred to as “Pope Frances”. Her devotion to her husband was unshakable. After he suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage in 1993, she cared for him with loving attention until his death in 2003. She and Webster loved each other dearly. Her sons will attest that they never saw Webster and Frances say a single harsh word to each other in their 56 years of marriage. Frances was the consummate mother to her children. The family loved taking vacations every summer and they eventually visited all 48 contiguous states plus Canada and Mexico. No children have ever been more loved by their mother than Frances’ three boys. Frances always enjoyed helping others. She and her friends knit many “prayer shawls” to help lift the spirits of those who are sick or injured. For many years, Frances has been very active in the Concord Senior Center where she participated in community service activities and loved to dance well into her late eighties. Her social calendar was full almost every day as she drove the wheels off of her Volvos. Though she had a few aches and pains towards the end of her life, she never let her positive attitude wane. In a nutshell, when the world lost Frances Medlin, the world lost a ray of sunshine. Frances was preceded in death by her husband, Webster, in 2003 and her siblings Helen Barringer Hammill, Rufus John Barringer, and Robert Alan Barringer. She is survived by her three sons, Steve and wife Debra Fondario Medlin, Seth and wife Jeannie Lucas, Kim and wife Marissa Honeycutt Medlin, six grandchildren (Scott, Ross, Lee, Graham, Hayley, and Linsey Medlin), and two great-grandchildren, Grant Medlin and Isaac Medlin. The Medlin family will have a (family only) viewing on Wednesday at 1pm at Gordon Funeral Home of Mt. Pleasant. A graveside service (public invited, mask is requested) will be 2:00pm Wednesday at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church Cemetery, officiated by Rev. Earl Bradshaw.