Catherine Jean "Cathy" Barton Para was an American folk musician from Boonville, Missouri known for her performances of traditional Ozark music and her proficiency on the banjo and hammered dulcimer.

For more than four decades she performed with her husband Dave Para.

She performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, on the television show Hee Haw, and regularly at Boonville's Big Muddy Folk Festival, which she helped found.

[1] Barton was born the child of military parents in Fort Benning, Georgia.

After living in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Hawaii, and Kentucky, her family settled in Columbia, Missouri where she graduated from Hickman High School.