Barbara Ann Layden

Barbara Ann Layden (née Campbell) passed away peacefully in her home on Christmas morning, December 25, 2025. She is survived by her children, Scott (Marsha), Michael (Jaime), Kate (Buzz), her 11 grandchildren, and her 9 great-grandchildren.

Barbara was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on October 21, 1933. She settled in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979, where she was a pillar of her community for over four decades. She received a two-year certificate in Hotel Management at Georgia State and a counseling degree at the University of Utah. She used the latter to volunteer with the Salvation Army to help those suffering from alcohol and drug abuse. For a program marked by anonymity, Barbara was committed to making sure people never felt alone.

Anyone who knew Barbara knows she was a singularly positive woman, quick to offer a smile, a laugh, and a cup of coffee. Her first priority, always, was her family, whom she was fiercely proud of. She was a lifelong learner, traveler, and a voracious lover of culture—theater, books, movies, and ball games. Parties will be dimmer without her and her spirit.

At the end of her life, no one was cared for better. The family is eternally grateful to Lauren, Omar, and Maria for their tireless work and warmth.

Barbara is preceded in death by her dear sisters and brother, her parents, her granddaughter, and, just this summer, her husband of sixty-eight years, Frank. Theirs was a love story unlike any other. After spending most of their very full lives together, an unstoppable unit, it feels fitting Barbara did not ring in a new year without him.

In lieu of flowers a donation can be made to the Salvation Army or drug and alcohol abuse be safe.

There will be a funeral mass on Tuesday, December 30th at 11 AM at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 331 E South Temple St, Salt Lake City, UT 84111