Barbara J. Simon, 73, dies after a short illness

The News Review joins the community in remembering the life and contributions of Barbara Simon with photographs and tributes in the current issue.  She was born February 1, 1943 in a Washington, D.C. hospital. Her parents, John R. and Dorothy Owen McGee were living in Greenbelt during World War II. She attended Center School and later North End School when the family moved to 7D Hillside Road. She graduated from High Point High School in 1961. She went to art school, first at Tyler School of Art, part of Temple University in Philadelphia. She received her bachelors in fine art in illustration from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. As a children’s book illustrator she collected and illustrated Jump Rope Rhymes published by Viking Press in 1968. For many years Barbara taught art to children, getting her start by teaching art in the BedfordStuyvesant section of Brooklyn as part of the Head Start Program. Barbara married Jean Kender, an immigrant Hungarian photographer in New York City. They had a daughter, Julia, born in 1977. They were divorced. Barbara and Julia came back to Greenbelt. For several years she taught c h i l d r e n ’s a r t at Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi and Friends Community School in College Park. In 1984 she married Thomas Simon, a librarian at the Greenbelt Library. They have a daughter, Nora, an artist who lives in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Simon was known in Greenbelt and beyond as an artist and children’s art teacher and community organizer; she contributed her time, energy and organizational skill to the Labor Day Committee and Children’s Art Show, as a Greenbelt Elementary School volunteer and as a founder of the Greenbelt Association of Visual Artists (GAVA) offering art, comic book art and animation classes for all.