Barbara Duffey

Barbara D. Duffey (1943---) grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where she obtained an RN degree from the Union Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1965. In 1979 she graduated from the University of Baltimore with a Bachelors of Arts in English and Creative Writing, cum laude. She hoped to write a novel about her experiences raising a handicapped child who died at age five.

After moving to Georgia and living in Milledgeville where historic homes lined every block, she felt compelled to write about the local folklore and ghost tales of the town's historic figures. Her first collection of stories became Banshees Bugles and Belles: True Ghost Stories of Georgia in 1996. The spirits from the past weren't satisfied and continued to influence her search for the answer to the question, "Is there life after death?" In 1997 Barbara's second book was born, Angels and Apparitions: True Ghost Stories Of The South. Four stories from this book were produced in a television program titled Haunted Atlanta, part of a Haunted History series aired nationwide on the history channel. Barbara's work as a registered nurse and love of history inspired a chapter about Ella Newsom, the Florence Nightingale of the Confederacy, in the book Valor and Lace: Women of the Confederacy. After losing her left eye to cancer and receiving many miracle stories, her deep faith compelled her to write Miracles From Heaven, a collection of true stories from all over the world in 1998. In 2015 she retired from nursing, a career that spanned fifty years. After working in many medical facilities including Veterans Hospitals, she felt compelled to write Of Grace And Courage: Thornhill Veterans Hospital, 2017, a novel about the struggle between the dying veterans, angry overworked nurses, and the apathetic administration. She hopes that this novel will, in some way, shed light on the plight of the victims, both patients and staff, and their struggle for redemption. In 2015 the "novel in progress" was a semifinalist in the Faulkner Williams Competition.

Barbara D. Duffey has two children, two grandchildren, and lives with her pets on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Her passions are her faith, her writing, and helping those less fortunate.