William Louis Barnacastle passed away on September 25, 2024, after a nine-year battle with heart failure. Preceded in death by his parents, Bill and Annie Marie (née Shelton) Barnacastle, Will leaves behind his wife and best friend of nearly a half-century, Jackie. Through the myriad difficulties and joys of their 48-year romance, the two sweethearts and companions were ever at one another’s side. Their three children, Katie Steele (Jamie), Matt Barnacastle (Rachel), and Jon Barnacastle (Lauren), and two grandchildren, Tuck Steele and Ruth Barnacastle, also carry forth Will’s memory, and share in the responsibility of protecting and furthering the good, the kind, and the gentle things of this world that he so deeply cherished. Will also leaves behind his two beloved younger siblings, Dianne Hall and Warren Barnacastle.
Born in Meridian, MS, the eldest son of sharecroppers, Will’s earliest memories were of working alongside his parents in the cotton fields of Bonnicord, TN, where the family had relocated soon after his birth. While life for the Barnacastle family was never easy during Will’s youth, his remembrances from this time typically blunted the hardships they faced, instead accentuating the simple pleasures of country life: lounging in cotton sack hammocks tied high in the treetops, looking for shapes in the clouds; walking barefoot on gravel in the quiet dark each Saturday night to watch Gunsmoke on the neighbors’ television set; listening in on the grown-ups’ hushed, front-porch conversations amidst the din of cicadas on summer evenings; and adventuring with (and testing the patience of) his sister and brother. Will was forever proud of his family and home community. The experiences of his childhood impressed upon him a deep respect for labor and a preternatural sense of kinship with laboring people that he would carry with him forever. An exceptionally hard worker himself, it was indeed rare that Will ever met a working person in whom he did not recognize something of himself and who did not in turn see something familiar and welcoming in his warm, empathetic demeanor. Everywhere he went, he carried the memory of the cotton field, and workers of every stripe and industry unfailingly recognized a friend in Will Barnacastle.
After graduating from Dyersburg High School, Will enrolled in the University of Tennessee’s School of Engineering in Fall 1966 through which he co-oped with TVA before completing his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at UT Knoxville in 1971. That August, he enlisted in the United States Army. After completing AIT and receiving security clearance level TOP SECRET CRYPTO, he was assigned to the Army Security Agency (USASA) and stationed in Germany. At USASA’s Eckstein Border Site, which monitored Soviet activity within (then) Czechoslovakia in the tense years immediately following the Prague Spring, Will maintained the radio towers and other equipment critical to the U.S.’ signals intelligence efforts in the region. Completing his tour of duty in August 1974, he returned home to Tennessee and went to work in manufacturing.
In August 1976, as a young engineer at Maremont, Will met the Great Love of his life, Jacquelyn Sue Holcomb. To the initial hesitance–if not downright dismay!–of her parents (who would eventually be won over), Jackie agreed to marry the long-haired, kind-eyed “college boy,” and they were wed the following April. Over the five decades that followed, Will and Jackie would share virtually every moment together. Weathering every obstacle and savoring every joy, ever challenging and edifying the other, they saw one another through it all not merely as equal partners and fellow adventurers, but as “one flesh.” Their cool-headed (and sometimes not so cool-headed) effectiveness as a team was surpassed only by the profound depth of their affection for one another. In truth, the two were hopelessly in love with one another and remained so until the very end. Theirs was a real-life love story.
Excepting only his wife, Will prized his children above everything. While uncompromising in instilling in his kids a sense of respect for and gratitude to others, Will was a tender and playful father who always prioritized time with his family. With annual pilgrimages to the Gulf Coast and Great Smoky Mountains, regular camping trips, and countless weekend hiking excursions to nearby state parks, Will and Jackie shared their immense love for the outdoors with their children, seizing every opportunity to seek refuge from life’s hustle and bustle in the restorative power of nature. In their final years together, Will and Jackie rarely let a week pass without finding their way to the woods for a hike or paddling their canoe around a local lake. Will truly delighted in the Wild, and his family will remember him always in the sound of wind through pines, the sight of cypress knees emerging from swamps, and the smell of fresh-split cedar.
The many people who knew and loved Will understand that he was so very much more than the mere historical facts of his life. He possessed a supremely gifted intellect coupled with extraordinary dexterity. In short, the man was skilled. And in truth, there was virtually no job Will could not do or teach himself to do, a fact that the otherwise humble husband and father shamelessly relished and never tired of demonstrating with great flair and showmanship, to the regular amazement of his family and nextdoor neighbors. “If they don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!” he would always laugh. Notwithstanding his penchant for public displays of skill, Will was typically an unassuming and subtle man.
Seemingly always in motion, Will was a source of great interest to the rest of us, having cultivated widely varied passions and talents over the years. He was artistic. The sketches, paintings, and poetry he produced as a young man reveal the deep sensitivity he never liked to wear on his sleeve, but of which all who knew him were keenly aware. He loved music. Besides being a gifted singer at home, at church, and especially behind the wheel, Will taught himself to play multiple musical instruments over the course of his life, and in his later years, he especially enjoyed entertaining his grandchildren with long-forgotten reels belted out on his harmonica. And how the man loved to dance! If Will wasn’t the most skilled dancer of his time, he was sure to have been among the more enthusiastic!
But most of all, Will deeply loved regular, everyday people. He loved learning about where and how they grew up; he loved hearing about their families, how they made a living, what mattered to them, what didn’t matter, and why. In conversation, he tended to ask a lot of questions, but always in a manner that made others feel special. A naturally affable person, he was easy to talk to, and even complete strangers never hesitated to share their lives with him. Will really believed people matter, and he spent untold hours of his life conversing in grocery store lines and doctor’s office waiting rooms, swapping stories at rest stops and state parks, and generally just being a sympathetic ear to anyone and everyone in need of a friend. He never seemed to take any notice of how he made people feel heard and understood; it wasn’t something he seemed to consciously try to do, but rather something that just happened of its own accord. Of all his gifts, this was perhaps his greatest. Will Barnacastle was a very rare and a very special man, and there is no measure great enough to fathom just how much he will be missed.
A celebration of Will’s life will be held on Saturday, October 12, 2024, at Arrington Funeral Directors in Jackson, TN. Visitation with the family will begin at 2:00 p.m. with the service starting at 4:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests you make a donation to your favorite veterans’ charity, military veterans having a special place in all their hearts.
Arrington Funeral Directors, 148 W. University Pkwy. Jackson, TN 38305
