Barbara Golden

Barbara Golden, 77, passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on October 4, 2025.

Barbara grew up in Lake Ivanhoe, Wisconsin, a small community located just a few miles east of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The hamlet of Lake Ivanhoe was founded on a small lake in 1912 as a resort for Black Chicago families by entrepreneurs, who, in order to bypass the Jim Crow practices of the time, hired a White broker to complete the land purchase. A memorable moment in Barbara's childhood took place during a visit to her grandmother's house in Bessemer, Alabama. One morning, she and a cousin defiantly confronted segregation by sneaking a drink from a "Whites-only" water fountain, wilfully breaking the law that enforced separate facilities for Blacks and Whites. This small but bold act happened not only happened during the same period as Martin Luther King, Jr’s Birmingham campaign, but became one of many moments in Barbara's history of confronting racism.

She attended UW-Madison, where she obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in English & teaching certificate in Education. She had a passion for using creative writing and poetry to as a personal and professional outlet to reflect on social inequities. She was published in local newspapers and magazines, receiving many city and community accolades over the years for both her writings and advocacy work.

During her early years in Madison, she married Don Higenberg from 1969-1973 and had her first child, Elia Hilgenberg. She later married Robert E. Golden in April of 1980, after meeting him and his son Joseph Golden, at their sons' mutual daycare. Robert says that meeting Barbara and this unification marked a turning point, providing him the support he needed to launch a company committed to community values -- what would become R.E. Golden Produce. His and her legacy live on in the business, as it continues to successfully run as the only (and longest) family-owned wholesale produce distributor in Madison WI today.

In 1985 and still in Madison WI, Robert and Barbara welcomed two more children, Devin and Samantha Golden marking the next chapter in their household. Her commitment to nurturing her own children’s growth expanded into a deeper desire to play an active role in education. She returned to school, earning her teaching certificate, intending to work from within to support and teach every child.

Undeterred and without regret, she actively began challenging the public school system’s approach of educating underrepresented children and she had found her calling: becoming a community educator. This had become her lifelong passion. She organized a citywide parent advocacy lobby and took on the volunteer role of non-attorney advocate for children the system wanted to expel -- again taking small but bold acts against the still-segregated public education system.

In 2013, Barbara and Bobby made the decision to relocate to Seattle WA, in part to be closer to their grandchildren, Evan and Violet -- a new generation to nurture, advocate for, and educate. Over the next ten years, she and her husband enjoyed traveling internationally with memorable trips to Ireland, Cuba and France! She created new communities of cross-cultural readingings and joining the local Unitarian community - Cedars. She enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren, celebrating their hobbies, walking along Fay Bainbridge Park and mastering the multiple ferry rides to and from Seattle. At their most recent house on Wild Swan Lane, she and Robert worked diligently to curate a beautiful garden landscape that reflected in many ways how they had truly embraced the peacefulness and sanctuary of Bainbridge Island.

In the fall of 2022, Barbara began experiencing persistent, debilitating nausea and a deep, progressive pain both within her body and mind. After a long and frustrating search for answers, a neuro-ophthalmologist finally diagnosed the cause on October 4, 2023: Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a rare and incurable brain disease. Barbara faced her final challenge -- not by surrendering, but by choosing to live fully, surrounded by her family. She treated the disease as she had treated any other unjust barrier in her life -- as something to meet head-on, like the segregated water fountain. And in a final poetic way, Barbara Golden passed away two years to the day of her diagnosis, October 4, 2025.

Barbara will be deeply missed by her devoted husband of close to 50 years, Robert Golden. She is also survived by her loving children Samantha, Devin, Joseph, Elia and his family, wife Vy and children Evan & Violet. Barbara is also survived by her lifelong friend and cousin, Bessie Anderson, and is preceded in death by her mother, Frances (Jones) Gewecke who passed 2011. She is remembered for her quest for knowledge, education and advocacy for all – especially those underrepresented.

Her family honored her death privately, with a burial at Hillcrest Cemetery on Bainbridge Island, and would welcome for others who knew her to also share their remembrances. 

Arrangements are entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island, WA