Barbara Ann Vargas

October 31,1938 - June 22, 2020

Mrs. Barbara Ann Vargas passed away in Walnut Creek on the morning of June 22 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Barbara was born to Leo and Lena (née Rasi) Sheehan in San Francisco, where she grew up with her two younger brothers, Thomas and Joseph. Upon graduation from Dame Grammar School, she entered Notre Dame High School, where she played basketball, and from which she graduated in 1956. She received a scholarship to St. Joseph’s Hospital Nursing School in San Francisco, and earned her R.N. degree in 1959. Barbara worked as a registered nurse for some forty years, and was passionately dedicated to caring for people.

She married Robert Vargas in 1960 and had two sons, Robert Jr. and Michael. The family lived in the Bay Area before relocating to Fresno in 1969, where they raised their boys and enjoyed many friends, eventually moving back to the Bay Area in 1983. After Robert Sr.’s passing in 1994, Barbara retired from nursing and moved back to San Francisco to care for her mother, and later to Walnut Creek. In her later years, she was a resident of Rossmoor in Walnut Creek, where she remained active and provided assistance to her many friends.

Barbara is survived by her two sons, Robert Jr. (Linda) and Michael (Staci), her grandson Benjamin; and her brothers Thomas (Diana) and Joseph (Wanda), as well as a large extended family.

The family wishes to extend a message of warm gratitude to Hospice of the East Bay for their compassion and care for Barbara in her final months. No immediate service is planned.