Barbara Buchanan deserved the Nobel Prize for Patience. For 20 years, she lived at the center of the F5 tornado that was Jim Hunt. The remarkable thing: I never once saw her lose her temper.

From Hunt’s 1972 campaign for Lieutenant Governor, through four years in that office, through eight years in the Governor’s Office, though eight years at Poyner & Spruill and then into his final terms in office, Barbara was outside his door. Or in his office helping him find the report he had lost. Or on the phone tracking down a dozen people he needed to talk to RIGHT NOW (“if you would please, Barbara”). Or squeezing in a surprise visitor to see the Governor – or a desperate press secretary who needed an answer to a question. Or making every guest in the Governor’s Office feel welcome, at home and a little less nervous.

She was genuinely sweet, kind and selfless. But, beneath the country-girl exterior was the heart of a lioness who fiercely protected the man she served. She was a canny judge of people and their motives. And she had a quiet, wicked sense of humor about them.

Barbara and her late husband Buck were bulwarks of Governor Hunt’s time in office. She was an unsung, but vital, player in North Carolina’s history.

Jim Hunt couldn’t have done it without her.

Barbara died on New Year’s Eve. A memorial service will be held later.