Obituary of Deirdre Jinjoo Barron

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Deirdre Jinjoo Barron (“Dede”) passed away on March 3^rd, 2023, while staying with her maternal grandparents in Harrison Township, Michigan.  She is survived by her father, A.J. Barron; mother, Jennifer Renee Spooner; and sister, Tylar Chun Sa Barron.  She was 21 years old.

Dede was born on September 13^th, 2001.  Her mother went into labor on 9/11 at the Naval Hospital aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, however, Dede took her time arriving into the world.  Born into a Marine Corps family (both her parent and her maternal Grandfather were Marines), she spent her childhood living in Jacksonville, NC and Okinawa, Japan because of her parents’ service.  She was also born into a multicultural family with Irish, Korean and Polish heritages shaping her formative years.  She ate perogies and bulgogi as commonly as hamburgers and hot dogs.  Eventually she and her mother moved to Harrison Township, MI while her father completed his last 18 months in the Marine Corps.  In 2008 the family moved to Reston, VA and then Herndon, VA where Dede attended Armstrong Elementary School, Herndon Middle School, Herndon High School while finally graduating from South Lakes High School.

Dede eventually attended West Virginia University to study Engineering on an academic scholarship in 2019, but her education was disrupted by the COVID pandemic.  She continued to study and work in Northern Virginia after leaving WVU and hoped to attend Wayne State University in Detroit, MI to study Environmental Science in the Fall of 2023.

Dede was an avid athlete competing on her neighborhood and high school swim teams, various travel soccer clubs, and as a varsity high school soccer goalie for Herndon.  During her short but meaningful life, Dede travelled extensively visiting Japan, China, Korea, Spain, France, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Iceland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Dede was loved by her friends and family for her exuberant and tenacious excitement for life, hope for the world, and ambitions to be an agent for social and environmental change on a global scale.

A celebration of life memorial event will be held on March 18^th, 2023, from 2-5 p.m. ET at the Adams Green Funeral Home at 721 Elden Street, Herndon, VA 20170.  Family and friends are invited to visit with Dede and others who loved her as we remember her humor, style, resilience, and dreams.

Flowers can be sent to the Adams Green Funeral Home, although the family asks in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Dede’s memory to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) at www.nami.org; or, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington D.C. at https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-metropolitan-washington-dc; or, the Earth Day Network at https://www.earthday.org.

Reception to follow, with details provided at the visitation.