August 31, 1932 – June 20, 2023
Barbara Lou (“Rusty”) Vicario (Cartwright, Maliner) passed away on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at the age of 90 after a wonderful, generous, and long life. She was born on August 31, 1932, in Noblesville and was the daughter of the late Charles M. and Mabel E. (Skippy) Cartwright. She was predeceased by her brother, Charles Donald Cartwright.
She was a 1950 graduate of Jackson Central High School in Arcadia and attended the University of Colorado from 1950 to 1951 until she married Martin M. Maliner in 1951. She raised three daughters, Beth, Cici, and Amy, and was eventually the beloved grandmother to five and great-grandmother to one.
In addition to her early years in Indiana, she lived in Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Arizona, Northern California, and Delaware. She enjoyed bridge, cooking, baking, entertaining, quilting, writing poetry, calligraphy, scrapbooking, Cape May, N.J., and serving others. During high school Barbara helped form a sextet of singers and remained friends with those women throughout her life. She joined Sweet Adelines in the 1960s and sang and competed with the choir and a quartet. Barbara was a dedicated Girl Scout leader in the 50s and 60s and may have had as much or more fun camping, crafting, singing, and serving than the girls in the troop.
During her professional life, Barbara worked as an Inventory Control and Purchasing agent for Atari and Qume, owned her own secretarial business for several years, bought and flipped houses, was department head of the word processing group for the city of Phoenix, and a purchasing agent for Hewlett Packard, and later was an Administrative Assistant at the Unitarian Universalist Church before retiring in 2007.
She will be remembered by all who loved her for her generosity of spirit – she was always baking, sewing, or making things for those who needed them – her ceaseless sense of curiosity, and her wit, which is memorialized in the many poems and verses she leaves behind. She imparted plentiful common-sense advice and countless recipes that will remain close to many hearts. She had an infectious laugh and laughed at herself and along with others, much to the enjoyment of all.
She is survived by her three daughters: Beth Maliner (Jeb Bartle) of Landenberg, Pa., Cici Palme (John Palme) of Leesburg, Va., and Amy Maliner-Killen (Scott Killen) of West Chester, Pa.; her five grandchildren: Sarah Bartle (Greg Van Houten) of Washington, D.C., Evan Bartle of Wilmington, Del., Jeremy Palme of Greensboro, N.C., Casey Palme of Leesburg, Va., and Ceilidh Killen of West Chester, Pa.; and her great-grandson, Ezekiel Van Bartle of Washington, D.C.
A celebration of her life may be planned in the future. If desired, donations may be made in her memory to Emmaus House of Newark, Del. (emmaushouse.net), where she taught sewing to mothers and children; My Stuff Bags Foundation (mystuffbags.org), or Friendship House of Wilmington, DE (friendshiphousede.org).
Condolences: delawareonline.com