Barbara W. Ellis

Barbara W. Ellis, 91, of Kansas City, Missouri, died October 22, 2023. Bobbie, as she was known by family and friends, daughter of the late George and Mildred Walker, wife of the late Bob Ellis, passed away after several months in hospice care.

Born Barbara Ann Walker on February 14, 1932, in Wilmington, Delaware, Bobbie was raised along with her younger brother David G. (Dave) Walker, largely in and around Delaware. Soon after graduating Frankford High School (Philadelphia) in 1950, Bobbie started working for various U.S. Army departments in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., rising from clerk typist to program analyst for the Chief of the Army National Guard Bureau.

While working at the Pentagon, in 1963, Bobbie met Robert C. (Bob) Ellis, and on December 21 of that year, they were married. They moved to Oxford, Ohio while Bob completed his Doctorate of Business Administration. Son Stephen W. (Steve) Ellis was born there in 1966, and daughter Elizabeth A. (Betsey) was born in 1969. Soon after, the family relocated to Northwest Arkansas, where Bob began a career as a professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Bobbie and Bob worked together with an architect to design the custom-built family home, completed in late 1971. Her artistic skills helped create a unique interior design, and she contributed these creative talents to innumerable projects and interests while raising her children. She was skilled in needlepoint, petit point, sewing, knitting, embroidery, writing, baking, indoor gardening, and music, having taught herself to play piano as a teenager.

Bobbie passed on her love of music to her children, encouraging them to learn violin and piano, and even the harp in Betsey’s case. Both children excelled in music, attending music camp and even performing with the North Arkansas Symphony as high schoolers. Bobbie served for several years as a secretary of the Music Department at the University of Arkansas, and was active in the school orchestra and symphony societies. She and Bob held season tickets to the Tulsa Opera, and they traveled to attend operas in many of the world’s best opera halls including those in New York, San Francisco, Prague, Barcelona, London, and Vienna. Bobbie’s sense of adventure started earlier in life, from traveling cross-country with her parents, to a guided European trip shortly after high school, and later residing in Germany at the beginning of Bob’s teaching career and again shortly before his retirement in Italy.

Bobbie moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 2015. She resided at Bishop Spencer Place, a retirement community located close to the historic Country Club Plaza, which is exactly where she wanted to be. She quickly made close friends, and was active on several committees, including the Dining Committee and the Garden Committee. Bobbie revitalized her love of writing by taking on the monthly “Garden Notes” column for the BSP magazine. She held season tickets to the Kansas City Symphony, a membership to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and attended Met Live opera performances at a local movie theater. Bobbie rediscovered her visual art aptitude in her last years, taking part in a monthly art class. These glimpses only begin to chronicle a richly nuanced life that brought joy to those who loved her. Her years in Kansas City were full of friendship, entertainment, arts, cuisine, and culture. Bobbie will be dearly remembered by her family and friends.