Barbara Mayers passed away last Wednesday in Rockport, Maine. For all who knew her well, she has been a guiding light, an example of integrity and generosity who saw the best in each of us. Her mind and spirit remained sharp through Tuesday night, when she told all the Yates family gathered at her bedside, "Follow your dreams and follow your heart and give my gift of love to the world." She was so wonderful right to the end.

Barbara Jean Mayers was born on March 29, 1927 in Shaker Heights, Ohio to Charles J. Mayers (1889-1969, of Marquette, MI) and Ann Elizabeth Wilkinson Mayers (1894 – 1972; of Meadville, PA). Her father was an engineer and executive with a company in Cleveland that made crystals for radios and televisions. Her mother was a nurse. Barb and her older sister, Catharine, grew up in Shaker Heights and spent summers on her grandparents' farm in Meadville, PA, where she learned that city girls don't wear dresses and fancy shoes when they get up at 5:00 AM to milk the cows and feed the chickens! Barbara received her Bachelors of Arts and teaching degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and went on to teach outside Chicago. Her first year teaching elementary school was in the balcony of the school gym, where one had to speak loud to be heard above basketball games being played below and where buckets were needed each time it rained through the leaking roof.

Fortunately for all of us, Barbara spent the following year in NYC at Columbia University to earn her Master's Degree in education. In that M.A. program she met and befriended Miss Sandy Zimmer, who was a teacher at Bronxville Public School, NY. She subsequently was introduced to "Hap" Funk, then Superintendent of Bronxville Public School, who was so taken by this young teacher that he offered her a teaching job for the following fall. The rest is history. Barbara taught 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grades (6th team teaching with Mr. Jack Murray) at Bronxville Elementary School from 1952 until her retirement in 1977. Her gift as a teacher was to take each child as he/she was and provide the tools to allow them to become the best they could be. In the many birthday cards she received on her 80th and 90th birthdays from former students, there were testimonials to her talents, such as "Miss Mayers, you were my favorite teacher of all time!" or "Miss Mayers, having you as a teacher changed my life and greatly influenced who I am today." Barbara always spoke so highly of the amazingly creative and dedicated teachers and administrators at Bronxville, with fondness and respect for their abilities to understand how children learn and the importance of community: Administrators: Hap Funk, Dr. Lou Braun, Miss Beulah Hagadorn and Teachers: Barbara White, Doris Knopf, Ruth Barrell, Jack Murray... to name just a few of the many she spoke frequently about and praised.

Following her retirement, Barbara was active in Delta Kappa Gamma Society for women educators, quilting and involvement with friends and family in West Chester, PA (1986 – 1996) and then Rockport, ME. She resided in Rockport, Maine from 1996 until present as a most valuable member of the Yates family.

Barbara Mayers is survived by nieces, Catharine "Katie" Wing of Scottsdale, AZ and Elizabeth "Liz" Walber of New York City, NY, and a multitude of loved ones, friends and former students. She will be greatly missed.

Barb did not want a funeral service, but asked that we have a gathering of family and friends in the spring when her ashes may be buried next to her dear friend, Fran Yates, in Rockport, Maine.