NORFOLK—After a life well lived spanning over 100 years, Barbara Portner Breeden Whitbeck passed away on February 17, 2026, with her family at her side.
Born on September 24, 1925, she was the daughter of Alvin Otto Portner and Ethel Mae Old. She spent her youth in Annapolis, Md., Washington, D.C., and Willoughby Beach, Norfolk. She attended Holy Trinity Catholic School and after marrying her childhood sweetheart William R. Breeden, and they lovingly raised four children in Raleigh, N.C.
With an interest in art and history, especially genealogy, and community service, she was a docent for the NC Museum of Art, a volunteer in the soup kitchen for Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and later a genealogist for the Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library in Lancaster.
She enjoyed European travel, was an avid gardener, talented artist, enjoyed competitive Scrabble games and rarely missed her daily crossword puzzles. There was no keener eye than Barbara’s for a charity shop treasure.
Barbara cherished her years on Willoughby Beach with her lifelong best friend Palmer Berryman Reagan. She often recalled being with Palmer in the Rosele Theater and being informed by “a dreamy-looking usher” that Pearl Harbor had just been bombed. Her love of the beach later inspired the purchase of a family vacation home in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., where she collected shells with her children. However, she was known to cover the “good” ones with her foot they were spotted by the kids first!
Barbara was preceded in death by her husbands, William Richardson Breeden and William F. Whitbeck; as well as her son, Robert Portner Breeden.
Left to mourn the loss of this gracious, generous and exceptionally witty lady are her children, Leigh Richardson Breeden of Naples, Fla., Nancy Breeden von Merveldt and her husband Clemens of Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, Bahamas, and William Richardson Breeden Jr. and his wife Sheila of Norfolk; her grandchildren, Stacie Hayes, Bobby Breeden, Valär Wilson, Meredith Versen and Bennett Reed; her 10 great-grandchildren, and many friends.
A private family graveside service will be held at Elmwood Cemetery. Online condolences may be offered via HD Oliver Funeral Apartments and memorial contributions in her honor can be made to Lancaster Virginia Historical Society, Lancaster, Va., in lieu of flowers.
