Barbara Ellen McCracken (Smith) 1938-2022 Barbara Ellen McCracken (Smith) was born in Kokomo, Indiana on December 26, 1938. She lived a full life and enjoyed everyone she met throughout her travels with her husband of 60 years, Paul (Mac) McCracken. Known and loved throughout her community where she was a member of the Church of the Highlands, Opelika, participated in a women's Community Bible Study group, and was active with embroidery and quilting hobbies. Barbara suffered and aneurism at home in Opelika, AL on Friday, April 29th and died peacefully on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at 83 years old. Barbara was the youngest of three, having two older brothers Thurman Smith and Richard Smith. As a young girl she lived on the family farms, first in Kokomo and later in Mexico, Indiana. She assisted with the daily chores and doing everything her brothers did, including driving the tractor and throwing hay bales at harvest time. She loved playing baseball with nieces, nephews, cousins and neighbors who affectionately referred to her as "Bobbi." During high school, she worked for a local doctor as an office and clinical assistant, helping with patient records, simple patient care and even administering an occasional injection. After high school, Barbara met Mac on a blind, double-date at the Miami County 4-H Fair in Peru, IN. He was an Elk's volunteer "Bingo Hawker" that caught her attention with his "Hey, hey, hey let's play bingo!" call phrase. They dated for three years and married on Feb 14, 1960, becoming lifetime sweethearts. The young couple moved from Indiana to St. Paul Minnesota and later headed west to Orange, CA to thaw-out before Mac was called back into the Air Force from the reserves. She was blessed with 4 children (Bill, Jeff, Steve & Cheryl) over 5 years. Barbara was often both mother and father while Mac was away on military duty, serving as homemaker, tutor, baseball coach, mentor, sports team chauffer, and role model for her children throughout their lives. She was known for her big family meals and famous for her pies and breads, especially of the pumpkin variety. Barb and Mac moved often and traveled extensively throughout his military career and their 60 years of marriage. After Mac's military retirement in 1985, they moved to Crestview, FL where they lived until 2012 when they relocated to Lafayette, AL to be closer to Cheryl and their youngest grandchildren. Most recently, they moved to Opelika, AL in November 2019 to enjoy the small-town community. Barbara earned her bachelor's degree in accounting in 1993 from Northwest Florida State College, demonstrating her perseverance as she attended multiple colleges while raising the family and constant military moves. She had several professional endeavors in her life including programming some of the first programmable computing devices for National Cash Register (NCR) in the early 60's, selling Bee-line Fashions in the 70's, bookkeeping, real-estate, accounting and tax preparation. Barbara was preceded in death by her husband, grandparents, parents, and brothers. She is survived by her four children, 8 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. Visitation will be held in the Parlor at Frederick-Dean Funeral Home Monday, May 9, 2022 from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. Funeral service will follow in the Chapel at Frederick-Dean Funeral Home at 10:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Fort Mitchell National Cemetery at 1:00 CDT. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Tunnels to Towers Foundation t2t.org