Obituary of Barbara Prescott Benson

Barbara’s Tall Tale

Barbara came a long way from her start in Milo, Maine, leading a peripatetic life that took her all over the Americas. Her own family being fractured at a young age by the death of her mother, she cherished the family she made, even relocating across the continent to be closer to her grandchild. In her 20s she headed west to Phoenix Arizona where she met her husband, Skip. They worked professional jobs in law and government in Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., until deciding to join the new initiative of citizen diplomacy called the Peace Corps.

In the Peace Corps in Panama, Barbara worked with the Government Home extension agents who were trained in the United States. The women in the village wanted to build a chapel, so the club worked to raise money to do that. Raising money meant dozens of cookie sales, which the women baked in their 1-foot square oven, on a kerosene stove, that would only bake six cookies at a time. They also arranged dances in the village, which required permission from the Panamanian National Guard. When Barbara asked the National Guard to come speak to the women, they sent a Commander, who only spoke in Spanish to the women, telling them what they needed to have for permission for a dance. While he was speaking, the women translated for Barbara into the Spanish that they knew she would understand. When he finished his presentation to the women, they all left. He then began to speak in perfect English. As a result of our “relationship” with the National Guard, they gave us bicycles. We later discovered that the National Guard had confiscated the bicycles, as stolen property, and then they would sell or donate to people like us, so we had transportation in the village. The ladies built their chapel, which meant that the priest would come to the village rather than the people having to walk 3 miles to church every Sunday.

A couple of years later, they returned home and the Amas de Casa club sent Barbara a quilt that each member had contributed to with their own square and put together into a lightweight cotton quilt. Many years later Barbara added to the squares of their quilt, and remade it into a one that included her photo-transfer pictures of the women.  She also lined the quilt for colder temperatures.

Barbara was also the financial wizard behind the successful Benson Enterprises, keeping the family afloat through thick and thin. It was her Yankee frugality that allowed them  to buy one cheap home after another, so that they could repair them, upgrade them, and sell them for a profit. During their 54 years together, they renovated at least six homes. The Oakland home required rewiring and plumbing repairs, as well as updating. They also added a second floor with a circular staircase between the first and second floors.

While in Oakland, Barbara took advantage of the free textile art classes she was able to take at California College of Arts and Crafts while Skip was a professor there. She took classes in weaving, spinning, dying, costume design, and pattern making, and built a foundation of knowledge and skills that she used for the rest of her creative life. When Skip quit at CCAC, they packed up and headed to Maine.

In their Camden home, they doubled the barn from 20 x 20 to 20 x 40, with Skip’s shop on the first floor, Barbara’s studio on the second floor, and a living space that overlooked Camden Hill State Park. Camden Hills provided a beautiful hiking spot so that Barbara and Donna Janville could make their daily climb up Mount Batty. While she was climbing, she got inspiration for snow scenes that showed up in her wall hangings, along with the fallen leaves that ended up in her floor cloths.

While in Camden, Maine, Barbara worked for the Island Institute. She was their “bookkeeper that kept the island Institute alive with a $1 million a year budget”, which was just a little bit more involved than bookkeeping. The Island Institute lifestyle was to go from one crisis to the next always, because they were continually short of money. While she was there, they gave her a coffee mug, which was in emblazoned with “Mom’s the boss”. Nowadays that might call for an age discrimination suit. But she saw it as it was really meant to be, a compliment. Working for the Island Institute was challenging and exhilarating. I don’t think she ever had a job that she liked better.

She also worked for the Maine Coast Artists organization, as a bookkeeper again, but she was more of a financial advisor to the director and fundraiser. That job introduced she and Skip to the art community in Maine. This was a good place for Barbara to introduce and sell her screen print wall hangings and floor cloths.

In 1996 a grandchild was due back in San Francisco, and winters in Maine were getting longer, so they moved back to the Bay Area. In Alameda, their home got an extra bedroom and bath on the first floor, as well as expansion of the kitchen. Their neighbors enjoyed watching Barbara and Skip DIY install the roof trusses and pour the foundation concrete floor for the bathroom and downstairs bedroom. To be fair, they had some help pouring the foundation, but what do you expect from people in their sixties.

Despite all of the construction projects, they were able to enjoy more than 54 years of cheerful wedded bliss.