NEW CANAAN – Barbara Wiley Bacon, 96, of New Canaan, CT, beloved wife of Edwin Lex Bacon, with whom she shared 44 years of marriage until his death in 1981, died Saturday, April 20, 2013, in her home at the New Canaan Inn. Barbara (or Bobbie, as she was affectionately known) was born January 15, 1917, in New York City, the third child of Channing Price Wiley of Salem, VA, and Corinne (Howell) Wiley of Quogue, NY. She was raised in Bernardsville, NJ, and educated at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, CT (class of 1934). Upon graduation, she attended the Grand Central Art School in New York City. Bobbie and Lex moved to New Canaan from New York City in 1941. She and Lex had 4 daughters, and when the oldest joined a Brownie troop, Bobbie was recruited as a troop leader, but she was soon diverted to writing publicity and news of the Scouts of New Canaan for the New Canaan Advertiser. With E. J. Cyr, a well-known local photographer, she covered two or three Scout meetings in an afternoon. It wasn’t long before they had the idea of putting together a self-help book for Scout leaders based on the exceptional local Scouting program, with Cyr, as he was known, as photographer. The book, published in 1949, was titled COME ALONG WITH US, took two years to write, and covered activities for the four seasons of the year at all levels of Scouting, from Brownies to Seniors. Following that, Bobbie joined a writers’ workshop, and for the next fifteen years she wrote poetry and short stories with this group. Subsequently, for Nancy Nickerson’s organization Resources Unlimited, serving people with physical handicaps, Barbara led a writing class herself. In the summer of 1983, Barbara traveled with a Quaker group, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, to the then-USSR, and documented this journey in a 74-page essay, A DROP IN THE BUCKET. Beginning in the mid 1990’s Bobbie began her most ambitious and rewarding venture: a trilogy of novels for young people, following the adventures of two children, Kate and Jimmy Donahue. Their story takes place in America between 1849 and 1860 and was written over a ten-year period. Bobbie, who said that Kate and Jimmy walked into her imagination one day and took over until the last page, completed the trilogy in her 90th year. Its publication reflected years of research and the culmination of her writing dreams. Besides caring for her husband and family, Bobbie was a devoted member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, teaching Sunday School for 25 years. In the early 1950‘s she founded an inter-church prayer group which met weekly for many years to pray for the needs of its members and those of the larger community. She also founded and led Earth Ministries at St. Mark’s, writing a monthly column of environmental information for the church and bringing speakers active in the environmental community to the church on Earth Day. Bobbie also wrote frequently to her Congressmen, several Presidents, and The New Canaan Advertiser, about her environmental and human rights concerns. Until she became a resident of the New Canaan Inn in 2010, she remained active at St. Mark’s, making weekly visits to parishioners at Waveny Care Center. Bobbie is survived by her four daughters, Susan Leeming and her husband Ned of Harvard, MA; Linda Bacon of Des Moines, IA; Frances Bacon and her husband Dolf Furrer of Zurich, Switzerland; Cynthia Nelson and her husband Richard of Rhinebeck, NY. She is also survived by her six grandchildren, Ben Leeming and his wife Susi, Lex (Nick) Leeming and his wife Ana-Maria, Emme Biberstein and her husband Derek Crawford, Corinne Biberstein, Zoe Nelson, and Jocelyn Nelson; and great-grandchildren Asher, Caleb, Margaret, and Corinne Leeming, Isabelle and Vivienne Leeming, Max and Jake Biberstein, and Benjamin Biberstein. A memorial service for Bobbie will be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 2, at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bobbie’s name to The New Canaan Inn, 73 Oenoke Ridge Road, New Canaan, CT 06840. Sunday June 2, 2013 , 2:00PM at St. Mark's Church Click for Map and Directions