Barbara Elliott Weeden

Born on October 14, 1927, the daughter of Bill and Helen (Meyer) Elliott, Barbara grew up in Los Angeles, California. Her father, known as “Wild Bill Elliott,” was a popular film actor who made 120 feature films, starred in 70 Westerns, and was best known for the Red Ryder series in the mid-1940s. An expert horseman who did most of his own stunts—his skills honed in the rodeo culture of his native Missouri—he taught Barbara how to ride at a young age on the family’s ranch in Calabasas, California. Barbara followed in his footsteps, both competing in local rodeos and acting in regional theater productions. She often spent time with her famous father on set, helping him memorize his lines. In 1945, she graduated at the top of her class from The Westlake School for Girls.

At Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, she majored in theater and thrived in the college’s proximity to New York City and Broadway. But after two years, she transferred to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, to be closer to her family. There she met Stanford swimming and water polo star Alan Weeden. After her graduation in 1949, the two married in 1950 and moved to Manhattan, where Alan worked for Weeden & Co., a securities dealer started by his father and uncle, heading up the bond department (he later ran the firm as CEO from 1967-1976). Barbara worked as an assistant at Today’s Woman magazine, then started a company called Teletest, which produced audition tapes for actors pursuing television roles.

As the couple began having children, they moved out to the suburbs, first to Larchmont, then Rye, New York. While raising two boys and a girl, Barbara wrote film reviews for a local newspaper, fundraised for New York’s PBS station (WNET Thirteen), and began taking art classes and painting, primarily in acrylic. After the family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1984, Barbara became passionate about the visual arts, working as a docent for the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY campus, and starting a business as an art consultant. She also helped curate art exhibits at the Flinn Gallery in the Greenwich Library and was on the board of the American Federation of the Arts, headquartered in New York City. Throughout her life, she traveled extensively, often to see art and visit artists’ studios. She was a caring wife and mother, with a love of learning and a dry wit.

She is survived by her children, Don (Vanessa), Bob (Susan), and Leslie (Joseph); four grandchildren, Molly, Sandra, Jack, and William; and two great-grandchildren, Charlotte and Ella. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory can be made to WNET (Thirteen), 825 8th Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10019, or at www.thirteen.org.