Barbara June (Francis) Medici

Barbara June (Francis) Medici, 88, of Braintree died Saturday, June 1, 2024 at Alliance Healthcare at Marina Bay, Quincy.

Barbara worked for many years at the Phone Company. She retired in 2000 from Curry Ellston Answering Service, West Roxbury, where she served as Manager for over twenty years. Barbara’s organizational skills and attention to detail were legendary. She was the travel director for the Braintree Council on Aging and for the Braintree Chapter of the AARP. She organized hundreds of trips by bus, air and sea. She kept track of every participant’s needs, making sure that special diets were accommodated, mobility issues were addressed, and that everyone had a wonderful time.

Barbara was a world traveler. She visited Italy (9 times!), France, Belgium, the Canary Islands, Spain and Bermuda. She went to every US state except Michigan and drove across the US three times, doing all the driving. It was said that Barbara stimulated the economy of every place she visited because of all of her shopping and restaurant visits. She loved going to the casinos all over the country, and even had a sign she would hang outsider her door “Gone to the Casino.”

Barbara had great love for her family and friends. She was truly interested in all of their lives, and never forgot a detail about anyone. She remembered all of their family members, their interests and hobbies and asked for updates regularly. She ended every call and visit with “I love you,” and she truly meant it.

Barbara was a great collector of dolls and stuffed animals. She arranged them on her bed and on her couch and easy chairs in a very special and precise way. Every night she took her dolls off of her bad and every morning, after she made the bed, she put them back. It was so much fun for her nieces especially, to visit her and admire (and sometimes play with!) all of the dolls.

Barbara loved animals. She had a special cat, Smokey, who liked to sit on top of the door and launch himself at visitors. She rode an elephant in the Canary Islands and even convinced her mother to do the same. In Spain, she held a monkey and a baby leopard, both of which were brought by their owner to the hotel courtyard each day. She got up early every morning to be the first one to greet the animals.

Barbara was a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi Church, South Braintree.

Born in Boston, Barbara was a graduate of Boston schools and she also earned an Associates Degree. She was married at age 18 to the late Marcello O. Medici, who took one look at her when he was a child and told his mother, “I am going to marry that little girl someday!”

Barbara is survived by her loving nieces, Susan Francis Melvin and Sharon Duncan Francis, a dear cousin, Ann Marie Carr (John), beloved niece Victoria Hastings, the flower girl and ring bearer from her wedding, niece Yolanda Doherty and nephew Richard Bergagna and many other nieces and nephews. Barbara was predeceased by her husband, Marcello, her brothers Warren G. Francis and Irving A. Francis, a sister Elizabeth Francis, and her parents, Herbert W. and Helen Mereen Francis. She was also predeceased by a very special and devoted nephew, Paul Medici.

A  Funeral Service will be held on Monday, June 10, 2024 at 10:00 AM at the Peck Funeral Home, 516 Washington Street, Braintree. Burial will be at the Massachusetts National Cemetery, Bourne.

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