Barbara A. Sweeney

It’s with deepest sympathy that we announce the death of Barbara Ann Sweeney of Atlanta, Georgia, who passed away on June 2, 2025.  She was born June 30, 1939, to Mary Anna Vozab and Dr. Valentine Goepfert in Astoria, New York.  She lived her first 11 years in Astoria, moving thereafter to Rye, NY, where she attended Resurrection grammar school and then the Academy of the Resurrection.  Thereafter, she attended Mount Holyoke College and went on to Cornell Nursing School, graduating in 1962.  Barbara married Stephen Sweeney in 1962.  In 1969, she earned a Masters in Nursing from Columbia University.

Barbara put her education to work, becoming one of the first Pediatric Nurse Practitioners in the United States.  She first worked at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx in New York.   Her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1977 and the couple would remain there following their divorce.   Barbara began her many years of work with high-risk infants at the Neonatal division of Grady Hospital.  Afterward, she worked for Kaiser Permanente, seeing patients daily in their clinic.  She would retire from Kaiser Permanente but not the work she loved.  First, she went back to work at Kaiser part-time.  That was followed by her work as a volunteer for the Good Samaritan clinic until 2020.

An avid traveler and cyclist, Barbara traveled extensively around the world, experiencing much of its beauty by bicycle.  Indeed, she cycled weekly on local Atlanta trails until she was 84.

She is preceded in death by her parents and ex-husband and is survived by her siblings, Carol McCarthy and William Goepfert (Rita); her children, Maureen Sweeney, Megan Tanner (Brian), and James Sweeney; her grandchildren, Seth Tanner and Sydney Tanner; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Fischer Funeral Care at 3742 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. on Friday, June 13, at 2:00 pm.  The family will accept visitors from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm prior to the service. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Rails to Trails Conservancy or the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.