# Barbara Howar > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Barbara_Howar > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Barbara_Howar.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Howar > Source revision: 1354462358 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American author and socialite (1934–2024)}} '''Barbara Stephanye Howar''' ({{née}} '''Dearing'''; September 27, 1934 – August 2, 2024) was an American author and [socialite](/source/socialite).{{Cite news |date=2024-08-06 |title=Barbara Howar, whose hit memoir dished on D.C. society, dies at 89 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/08/06/barbara-howar-dead/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}} {{Cite web |title=The Last of the Southern Girls |url=https://gardenandgun.com/feature/the-last-of-the-southern-girls/ |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=Garden & Gun |language=en-US}} She was the older sister of [Charlsie Cantey](/source/Charlsie_Cantey).{{Cite news |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=2024-08-05 |title=Barbara Howar, Irreverent Memoirist of Washington Society, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/books/barbara-howar-dead.html |access-date=2025-01-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Howar was born Barbara Stephanye Dearing in [Nashville, Tennessee](/source/Nashville%2C_Tennessee) on 27 September 1934 and grew up in [Raleigh, North Carolina](/source/Raleigh%2C_North_Carolina). She was the second of three daughters of engineering-industry sales manager Charles Oscar Dearing and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née O’Connell) who was also known as Buffy. She was a graduate of the [Holton-Arms School](/source/Holton-Arms_School) and [St. Mary's Junior College](/source/Saint_Mary's_School_(Raleigh%2C_North_Carolina)).[https://www.nytimes.com/1958/10/12/archives/edmond-howar-fiance-of-barbara-s-dearing.html "Edmond Howar Fiance Of Barbara S. Dearing," ''The New York Times'', Sunday 12 October 1958.] Retrieved 2 January 2026. She was married to Edmond N. Howar from 1958 to their [divorce](/source/divorce) in 1967. She was featured in an article in the July 29, 1966 issue of ''[LIFE](/source/Life_(magazine))''.[https://books.google.com/books?id=KFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false "Here Comes, There Goes Barbara," ''LIFE'' (magazine), 29 July 1966.] Retrieved 2 January 2026. She wrote the 1973 memoir ''[Laughing All the Way](/source/Laughing_All_the_Way)'' and the 1976 novel ''[Making Ends Meet](/source/Making_Ends_Meet)''. [Charlotte Curtis](/source/Charlotte_Curtis) of ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' described the former as "delightful, gossipy, occasionally hilarious memoirs" of which the message was "how she managed to survive her own antics and enough personal recognition to choke a goat."[https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/20/archives/laughing-all-the-way-by-barbara-howar-298-pp-new-york-stein-and-day.html Curtis, Charlotte. "''Laughing All The Way''; By Barbara Howar. 298 pp. New York: Stein and Day. $7.95," ''The New York Times Book Review'', Sunday 20 May 1973.] Retrieved 2 January 2026. Writing for the same publication, [Erica Jong](/source/Erica_Jong) compared ''Making Ends Meet'' with Howar's previous literary work as "equally well‐written but somehow less immediate and convincing" and that it "seems to lack narrative drive and a sense of purpose."[https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/25/archives/cherchez-ihomme-making-ends-meet.html Jong, Erica. "Cherchez l'homme," ''The New York Times Book Review'', Sunday 25 April 1976.] Retrieved 2 January 2026. R.Z. Sheppard of ''[TIME](/source/Time_(magazine))'' opined, "As a novelist, Howar seems to have learned a lot from old movies and [talk show](/source/talk_show)s. Her basic technique is the [flashback](/source/Flashback_(narrative)) and her keenest instinct is for the spiky remark."[https://time.com/archive/6847895/books-valley-of-the-guys/ Sheppard, R.Z. "Books: Valley of the Guys," ''TIME'' (magazine), 3 May 1976.] Retrieved 8 January 2026. She died at her home in [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles), California, at the age of 89. {{Cite news |last=Times |first=Charlotte CurtisSpecial to The New York |date=1973-05-20 |title=Laughing All The Way;By Barbara Howar. 298 pp. New York: Stein and Day.$7.95. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/20/archives/laughing-all-the-way-by-barbara-howar-298-pp-new-york-stein-and-day.html |access-date=2025-01-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} == References == {{reflist}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Howar, Barbara}} Category:1934 births Category:2024 deaths Category:21st-century American writers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:People from Raleigh, North Carolina Category:St. Mary's School (North Carolina) alumni Category:Writers from Raleigh, North Carolina {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Barbara Howar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Howar) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Howar?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.