Lifelong Texan and peace activist Cynthia Barber Faust died in Dallas on May 20, 2021 from a rare cancer of the liver bile duct. Born November 7, 1939 in Beeville, Texas to Thalia and Clifford Barber, she moved around the state with her family, attending “twelve schools in twelve years,” cherishing her East Delta school days in Delta County. A Sigma Kappa, she graduated with a B.A. in Zoology from Texas Tech where she met her future husband, Bruce Faust. They married in 1961 and moved to Dallas where he attended medical school. After a brief stint on an Air Force base, they settled with their two children, Diana and Eric, in Irving, Texas in 1970.
Cynthia promptly joined the League of Women Voters of Irving, where she made many long-time friends while working on a wide spectrum of political issues. She was a fervent supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and constantly campaigned for liberal candidates on the local, state and national levels. She was also active at Woodhaven Presbyterian Church, where she was an Elder and volunteered for everything from coordinating The Pantry food bank, to teaching Sunday school, to adding her distinctive alto harmonies to the choir.
She became involved in social justice work and the anti-war movement through her church and the Dallas Peace and Justice Center. She worked for the Sanctuary movement, CISPES (Christians in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), and the InterReligious Task Force on Central America, assisting refugees from war-torn countries in seeking asylum. On her many trips to Central America she fearlessly volunteered in various roles, notably as a human shield protecting Salvadoran citizens from attack by military junta troops during El Salvador’s civil war, and as an independent observer of the Contra War against the Nicaraguan government. In 1988 she spearheaded the Dallas-area collection and shipment of a cargo container full of donated medical and humanitarian supplies for Nicaraguan victims of Hurricane Joan. Her steadfast opposition to the Reagan administration’s illegal funneling of funds to the Contras led to her demonstrations and subsequent arrest as part of a peaceful sit-in protest in Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s Dallas office.
A soft-spoken yet forceful presence in Irving city politics, she served on the Housing and Human Services Board and was instrumental in bringing federal Community Development Block Grants to assist low-income households and aid with homelessness, mental health and senior services for local residents. After years of her dogged advocacy for underserved patients, the Irving Health Center, a sliding fee scale satellite clinic of Parkland Hospital, was built on Britain Way. She tutored at-risk youth and volunteered at Family Outreach of Irving. A core member of Advocates for Homeless Teens, she was vital in organizing the 2015 construction of La Buena Vida House, a shelter for homeless teenage boys in Irving. Despite increasing mobility issues in her later years, she never ceased to be a presence at anti-war demonstrations around North Texas, waving protest signs out the window of her wheel-chair equipped van.
Witty and inquisitive, she was a PBS and NPR aficionado and an avid reader of everything: books, magazines, newspapers, political newsletters, you name it. An insatiable intellectual curiosity spurred her life-long quest for knowledge, from auditing Schubert Ogden’s classes at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, to learning Spanish, to attending North Lake College classes on a myriad of subjects.
Cynthia was a devoted mother and a doting—some might say fanatical—grandmother. She enjoyed meaningful friendships, particularly with the “Lunch Bunch,” a close-knit circle of strong and vibrant Irving women who have shared the highs and lows of life over laugh-filled meals for decades.
Cynthia is survived by her husband of sixty years, Dr. Bruce Faust of Irving, TX; daughter Diana Faust and her husband Mark Haskell Smith, step-grandchildren Olivia and Jules Smith of Los Angeles, CA; son Eric Faust and his wife Sarah Baker Faust, grandchildren Margaret and James Everett of Austin, TX; brother Steve Barber of San Jose, CA and his family; sister Judy Barber Sanchez of San Antonio, TX and her family; and a host of loving relatives and friends.
The family thanks the Faith Presbyterian T. Boone Pickens Hospice Center staff for their care during Cynthia’s final weeks.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, June 22 at 10:00am at Woodhaven Presbyterian Church in Irving. To attend virtually, please contact Woodhaven for a live-streaming link. In lieu of flowers Cynthia requested that you kindly donate to the North Texas Food Bank: https://give.ntfb.org/ or CEPAD, the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua: http://www.cepadnica.org/donate
Due to technical difficulties the church was unable to live stream the service, but the service was recorded. To View the Funeral Service For Ms. Cynthia Faust Please Click Here