Barbara Jean Naughton passed away peacefully on November 2, 2026, in Rhode Island, surrounded by her family. She was 99 years old.

Born on August 21, 1927, in Portland, Maine, Barbara was the daughter of the late Hollis “Jack” Blake Jones and Yvonne Dorval Jones. She grew up during the Great Depression, yet from an early age she possessed a remarkable lightness of spirit, a love of life and a natural magnetism that drew people to her and would remain with her throughout her 99 years.

She grew up in Portland, and the Maine coast became the backdrop for some of her happiest early memories. She would often tell stories of dancing late into the night on the pier at Old Orchard Beach, despite her mother's concerns that one day the pier might simply fall into the ocean.

The beach would remain a constant throughout Barbara's life. As a young mother, she began spending long summer days with her family at Pine Point, Maine, starting a tradition the family has kept for 75 years. "It's nothing fancy, but it's great for kids and it never changes," she would say. Decades later, she could still be found on that same stretch of beach with her sisters Rita and Jackie, drinking champagne and giggling together while their grandchildren played nearby.

On October 22, 1949, Barbara married John P. "Jack" Vanier. They lived initially in South Portland before moving in 1958 to Barrington, Rhode Island, where they made their home and raised their four children. Rhode Island would remain home for the rest of Barbara's long life.

More than anything, Barbara adored her family. She was the devoted mother of Kevin Vanier and his wife, Wanda; Karen King; John Vanier and his wife, Julie; and Marcie Williams and her husband, Dan. Her love for her children was boundless, accompanied, as those closest to her knew, by an equally boundless capacity to worry about each of them. She carried the joys and concerns of the people she loved as though they were her own.

To her grandchildren, she was lovingly known as Nanan. She was a beloved grandmother to Kelli McAllister and her fiancé, Michael; Kristen Neily and her husband, Lucas; Blake Vanier and his husband, Rodrigo Bellettini; Heather Esposito and her husband, Justin; Jack Vanier, Charlie Vanier and Bo Vanier; Allison Williams Leake and her husband, Paul and Laura Williams. She also had the great joy of knowing five great-grandchildren: Piper, Will, Pete, Luke and Noah.

In 1991, Barbara married John Naughton Sr. and together they began a wonderful new chapter. She traveled with John to Paris and London, seeing the great sights of Europe for the first time in her life. Their home in Middletown, Rhode Island, was always open for family gatherings, and the two of them shared a great deal of love and laughter. John passed away in 2000, but everyone who saw Barbara in those years remembers how happy she was.

Barbara loved fun, and she loved people. She thrived in social settings, loved a party and loved dressing for one, and she was game for dinner out and a night on the town well into her 90s. Given the choice, she would take a seat at the bar, whatever the occasion. She loved going to the movies, and she would often grab lunch at the bar at Pour Judgment, a Newport bar near the theater that she liked to call her "private club."

She loved good food and good champagne. She played bridge with her friends, and she read avidly to the very end, probably thousands of books in her lifetime, with a particular weakness for a good mystery. She was a gifted storyteller, the kind who could remember and retell a story beautifully, and she never allowed a few inconvenient facts to stand in the way of a funnier ending. Nor was she ever above a well-timed, slightly scandalous joke.

Some of the happiest moments of her life were spent at home in Middletown: the grill going, the sun going down, the family gathered around the table or out on the patio, everyone laughing. As her children and grandchildren grew up, she became something more than a mother and grandmother to them, a friend who loved nothing more than a real, grown-up conversation. She was full of small pearls of wisdom, most of them some version of the golden rule: treat others as you wish to be treated. She loved freely, and so her family returned to her, again and again.

Barbara was predeceased by her parents; her brother, Warren Jones, and her sister, Rita Seidel; her first husband, Jack Vanier; and her second husband, John Naughton Sr. She is survived by her sister, Jackie Smith of Portland, Maine; her four children; nine grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and the extended family she leaves behind.

At the end of so many visits, as her family headed back to their own homes, she would say the same simple thing: "I love you, baby." We love you, too.

Services will be private. Donations may be made to Visiting Nurse Home and Hospice in Rhode Island (visitingnursehh.org).