Barbara Ann Bynum Pactor's Obituary
Barbara Ann Bynum Pactor, 85, died August 31, 2025, in Houston, TX, where she lived with her husband, Dr. Howard S. Pactor. They had recently moved to Houston to be near their son, David, and his family. Barbara was the eldest daughter of Elbert L, and Mary Jo Miller Bynum of Walnut Grove and Attalla, Alabama, where their families had lived since the early 1800s. She is survived by her sister, Ruth Kolker, of Portland, OR and her sister-cousin, Susan Swann, of Gadsden, AL.
Barbara attended K-12, as she said, “in a BIG red brick schoolhouse in Walnut Grove.” She was a 1962 graduate of Auburn (AL) University with a degree in elementary education and taught in the public schools of Punta Gorda, FL.
She earned an MS in Library Science at Florida State University in 1968. She met her husband-to-be via a computer date matching service between UF and FSU in 1966, and met face-to-face for the first time on a real date on March 17, 1968, when they attended the FSU Flying Circus in Tallahassee. Following the Florida tradition that Gator men find their wives at FSU and Seminole girls find their husbands at UF, the tradition held and they were married June 16, 1968.
After graduating FSU in 1968, Barbara went to work at the Air University Library at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery while Sid completed his Air Force service at Gunter Air Force Base, also in Montgomery. She and Sid spent their wedding trip at Governor’s Harbour on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. This would later lead to Sid’s doctoral dissertation on the mass media of the Bahama Islands. In the fall of 1969, they returned to Gainesville where Sid finished his MA and joined the faculty of the College of Journalism and Communications in 1970. With time out to study at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville where he earned his PhD, Sid served on the UF faculty until his retirement in 2007.
In 1971, their daughter, Elizabeth Ann, who was to die in a tragic accident in 2017, was born in Gainesville. She was followed in 1973 by their son, David Alexander, who lives with his wife, Avit Romano-Libnic and their children Alanis Adi and Sebastian Alexander, in Houston.
Barbara worked in the University of Florida Library System for some time, but she was most proud of her thirty years of volunteer service to the Friends of the Library in Gainesville. She was a great believer in books and her home, wherever she and Sid lived, was well stocked with books. In lieu of flowers, Barbara would appreciate your remembrances of her to be in the form of donations to your local library, public or religious, or a child literacy program.
On a very personal note, Barbara was my life-long love. There was before and then there was a beautiful southern girl who shared her life and dreams with me for more than 56 all too-short years.
Mark Twain, who was and is one of America’s illustrious authors, wrote many humorous short stories. But Twain had a darker side that is, it seems, little known or remarked upon. When I was an undergraduate at UF, I worked as a TV cameraman at WUFT-TV and was fortunate to—as we said—run camera on a production of Twain’s Diary of Eve. It is a charming story of the Creation as seen through the diaries kept by Adam and Eve. The final paragraphs, which I urge you to read, is titled “Eve’s Prayer” and it sums up Barbara’s view on the end of her life. And she got her prayer answered—much too soon.
The last line in the story, according to Twain, was 40 years later at the end of Adam’s life. It sums up my feelings for the love of my life. I will quote it for you:
“Wheresoever she was, there was Eden”
For me, my Eden has closed—with tears and memories shared and those held close as only husbands and wives can know. She is, and will always be, my “Barbers.”
Barbara will be buried next to Ellizabeth in the B’nai Israel Jewish cemetery in Gainesville. I will join them there sometime in the future.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 12:00 P. M., in the Chapel of Williams-Thomas Funeral Home Downtown, 404 North Main Street, Gainesville, with Rabbi David Kaiman, officiating. Interment will follow in B'nai Israel Cemetery.
What’s your fondest memory of Barbara?
What’s a lesson you learned from Barbara?
Share a story where Barbara's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Barbara you’ll never forget.
How did Barbara make you smile?
