American Paleontologist

Fall 2006, Paleobotany

Barbara Audrey Bedette Memorial
by Warren Blow

Life member of the PRI, long time friend of Katherine Palmer, collections and research assistant for many years to Druid Wilson, Wendell P. Woodring and Harry S. Ladd, our dear Barbara Bedette died very early in the morning of February 22, 2006 while undergoing treatment for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. She had been diagnosed with the disease only a few days earlier.

Barbara was born on March 27, 1932 in the little port town of Conneaut, Ohio located on the shores of Lake Erie just one mile from the Pennsylvania State Line. Conneaut, was famous for its recreational beaches at that time and with its huge high capacity Hulett Automatic Ore Unloaders was a major Port on Lake Erie specializing in the offloading of iron ore pellets destined for North Bessemer, Pennsylvania via the old Bessemer & Lake Erie RR and the loading of PA coal delivered to it by the trains return trip. The "Hulett", invented by a Conneaut native, revolutionized ore transfer. The town itself, with a current population of about 12,500, is still very small but warm and friendly. She, an only child, lived with her parents in a two-story wood frame house on Bank St., in a quite neighborhood, on the East side or in East Conneaut. Her father Abraham Bedette and mother Margaret Goellner had left Port Gibson, NY in search of work and a new life in Conneaut. Abraham, one of ten children of a farm family, found work in the local creamery as a refrigeration mechanic and would later open his own successful business in this field. Margaret had aspired to become a teacher, but with the birth of Barbara became a devoted mother and homemaker instead. Not much is known of Barbara's life prior to her coming to Washington, D.C., for she rarely talked about herself. But friends and family have filled in some of the blanks. As a young girl she enjoyed roller skating into town or bicycling down to the lake where she would spend the day. Barbara always loved the beach, any beach! Summers away from home, to her delight, were often spent on her grandparents dairy farm back with her many aunts, uncles and cousins in Port Gibson where she might spend the day watching her uncles milk the cows and work the farm or she could climb the "drumlin" behind the farm and wile away the day looking out over the fields toward the nearby Erie Canal. Her love of the area and her family there would carry her back to the old Bedette Farm throughout her life.

Geological Society, 1953.Barbara is second from the left in the front row.

In Conneaut most of her Rowe High School classmates knew her as "Barb", a few called her "The Brain" and all describe her as quiet and studious, not athletic or interested in sports. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in1950 in a class of only 38. Her senior HS yearbook , "The Viking Saga", reveals that she was a member of its staff her junior and senior years, the latter of which she was senior editor, and she was a member of the class play committee these two years as well. She was a member of the Latin Club for three years and she studied French extensively and would retain her interest in it and other languages throughout her life. Barbara was wonderfully independent with diverse interests and would try anything, which probably explains why she was also a member of the Girls Industrial Arts Club. Her yearbook gives her "pet peeve" as jazz, her favorite pastime as pets (she loved her little dog) and predicted that she would be a "globe trotter". In her class "will"(last will and testament) she and a fellow classmate left their "capacity for scholastic achievement" to an underclassman and state: "Assignments are not at all hard if you make up your mind to do them.". The inscription below Barbara's senior photograph reads: "Good nature and good sense must ever join". These words describe her well. Her strong work ethic, determination, dedication, good nature and good will would remain with and serve her and all of us throughout her life.

After highschool she attended Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where in 1954 she earned a BA degree in Geology and minors in French and Biology. While there she belonged to the Women's Independent Society, an organization that appears to have been service orientated. Her chapter provided food to needy families, were foster parents to a young French boy and sponsored campus activities such as a Homecoming Ball. She was also a member of Gamma Theta Upsilon, a national professional geographic fraternity and a member of Beta Pi Theta as well, a national French honor society. Her interest in French, German and other languages never ceased. No one seems to know why she pursued a degree in geology but when you look at the activities listed for the BGSU Geology club, of which she was a member for 3 years, it all becomes clear. They went on field trips! Barbara wanted to travel, to see the world, and she loved the great outdoors.


Right to left: Yearbook photo, 1954; French class photo, 1954; Graduation from BGSU, 1954.

After graduation she applied for a position with the U.S. Geological Survey stipulating that she would like to be stationed and work in NY but not NY city. She was hired by the USGS that summer as a geologist and assigned to their Paleontology & Stratigraphy Branch then located in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Once there she had the good fortune to be placed under the supervision of Druid Wilson who immediately began sharing his vast knowledge of molluscan systematics and Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Stratigraphy with her. With his support, guidance and encouragement she began what would come to be perhaps her single most important accomplishment - a species card file of all known Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Cenozoic Mollusks. Remarkably, she completed this project her first year and she continued to update it throughout her career. It now consists of more than 30,000 references and has become an invaluable resource for visiting mollusk workers. The following year, as a part of a team under the supervision of Druid Wilson, her time was devoted to a compilation of : "Geologic names of North America introduced in 1936-1955", U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1056-A, published in 1957. Despite years of assistance to others in the writing of their papers, including myself, this is Barbara's only publication to date that includes her as an author. In 1958 she spent two months assisting Ellen James Moore in curating the type Tertiary mollusks at the Academy Natural Sciences of Philadelphia where she gathered data and assisted in the recognition of type specimens, especially those of T. A. Conrad. The results of their work were published by Ellen J. Moore: Conrad's Cenozoic fossil marine mollusk type specimens at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Proceedings, v. 114, no. 2, 1962.

Passport photo, 1956.

In the years that soon followed Barbara found herself not only working for Druid Wilson but Wendell P. Woodring and Harry S. Ladd as well. Her accomplishments between 1957 and 1967 were profound. In just ten years she organized our Cenozoic Mollusk Types into an easy to use order that we have enjoyed and profited from for four decades and she created a Tropical American Type Reference Collection as well. In addition, she integrated most of a large important new acquisition, The Johns Hopkins Cenozoic Mollusk Collection, into our Smithsonian Cenozoic Mollusk Reference Collection making identifications where necessary and organized it all by family, genus and species creating a huge Cenozoic Mollusk Taxonomic Reference Collection. She also curated our entire West Indian, Central & South American Cenozoic Mollusk Collections and identified and curated thousands of lots of East and Gulf Coast Cenozoic Mollusks as well. She even managed to survey, organize and label the Smithsonian's Recent Coral Collection for Harry Ladd. Her accomplishments form the core of this institution's remarkable collection of Cenozoic Mollusks and nearly all of these "tools" we take for granted and depend on daily were created by Barbara in only a single decade. In the two decades that followed she completed her work on the Taxonomic Collection, which now occupies about 900 drawers containing thousands of specimens, and she found time to create a Atlantic Gulf Coastal Plain Paleogene Topotype Reference Collection as well. She continued to curate collections where needed, made indices for and proofread all six of Woodring's Panama Professional Papers, and edited and corrected, where necessary, Ladd's final Professional Paper. She was an excellent proofreader and editor and she received a special monetary award for helping Woodring and Ladd complete their final papers. Both men were gone from the institution by 1982. Barbara had continued to work for Druid Wilson until his retirement in 1975. Lauck W. (Buck) Ward was now with P & S in Reston. There were no longer any local (Smithsonian Institution) USGS Cenozoic Mollusk workers for Barbara to assist in Washington so she was detailed to other P & S Washington based personnel. She soon found herself updating Paleobotany's Compendium of Fossil Plant Names for Sergius Mamay who would later state that "Barbara was the best assistant I ever had". In 1982-83 she prepared Paleozoic Bryozoa for Olgerts Karklins just before his retirement. Most of the P & S Branch had been transferred to USGS headquarters in Reston, VA and Barbara much to her sorrow was finally transferred too. Now she found herself working with diatoms for George W. Andrews and Cenozoic Mollusks for Buck Ward. She enjoyed working with both men and she had always enjoyed "hands on" work with specimens. Barbara, a trained SEM operator as well, also took photomicrographs of diatoms for Andrews and micro-mollusks for Ward.

Collecting at Cross Quarry, June 1972.

From 1957 through1987 while engaged in a host of ever changing duties and projects she managed to scan the "new book" shelves of the USGS main library weekly checking out those many diverse publications (Diatoms to Whales) from around the world that she knew would be of interest to her 35 plus P & S and SI colleagues back at the museum. She also had to keep track of who had what and get it all back to the library on time each week for 30 years. A monumental task in itself.

With Druid Wilson, September 1972.

In 1987 Barbara retired from the USGS at age 55 after 33 years of service. If she had been allowed to continue to work on Cenozoic Mollusks in the National Museum she probably never would have retired. In 1988 she was hired on Smithsonian grant money for 3 years by Thomas R. Waller of the Institutions Department of Paleobiology as a collaborator under the Scholarly Studies Program to make a library of descriptions and figures of all known fossil and Recent Pectinacea, a project begun years earlier by Waller. After the grant money ran out Barbara continued this work as a volunteer 2 to 3 days a week for 15 more years. Her file contained nearly 7,000 names and was nearing completion when she died unexpectedly. She would finally have had a substantial publication bearing her name as a co-author but sadly, she would not live to see its future publication.

Barbara in 1972.

Barbara never complained about her varied assignments over her years of federal service. She excelled at all that she was asked to do for others as well as in those many projects of her own design and direction. She stood apart from all of the rest of us in the quality and quantity of her work and in the cheerful manor in which she conducted her life. She was an asset to any researcher, team or project and an absolute pleasure to work with. She never rushed about, seemed panicked or pressed for time, never seemed real busy, always had time to talk and yet she accomplished so very much. Though quite capable of serious systematic research she expressed no interest in publishing such papers herself preferring instead to organize large collections or to create huge data bases that would serve her fellow paleo-malacologists .

This institution, the USGS, ANSP, and our extended family of mollusk workers everywhere owe Barbara so much for her diligence and dedication to her duty, her love and devotion to her work and colleagues.

Among her honors:

The U.S. Geological Survey's "Scroll of Honor in recognition of more than 30 years of efficient, dedicated and constructive public service" and:

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History Peer Recognition NMNH Community Award of 1999 for her 46 years of research and volunteer service. This award is given to one individual each year by our 1,200 member NMNH community. It is our highest award.

When Barbara joined the USGS in 1954 she undoubtedly expected to participate in some official fieldwork. Unfortunately however, Wilson, who often went in the field, thought it inappropriate to take a young women in the field with him. Most of Woodring's fieldwork was behind him and Panama was a long way away. The logistics of Ladd's Pacific fieldwork were even more difficult. Thus Barbara's only official fieldwork took place in 1972 when she traveled with Druid and myself to the Cross Quarry in Berkeley, SC. As expected, Barbara proved to be an excellent field assistant with a sharp eye and knowledge of the fauna before her. I would later discover that as a certified SCUBA diver she was equally able in the marine environment. She may not have had opportunities to travel and participate in fieldwork for the USGS but she did at least travel extensively on her own or with friends. In her lifetime she managed to see a good bit of the U.S., raft down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon, make it to 4 continents, about 20 countries and she planned to travel even more. As predicted, she was indeed, a "globe trotter".

For as long as I can remember her day "HAD" to begin with a cup of coffee for she could not, would not go forward without it and yet it was her only cup each day. Her lunches were modest taken with a glass of water and weather permitting, she preferred to eat outside. She ate little bread, and she never ate in excess. Caffeine in any form after noon or a late dinner were avoided. Lunch would most often end with a peppermint paddy, and dinners would end with a more serious dessert, for Barbara loved desserts. On clear weather days she liked a long walk, a few miles or more on average, the further the better. As stated earlier she did not like jazz but she throughly enjoyed opera and often held season tickets to performances in both Washington and Baltimore. She loved beautiful music, the theme from "Chariots of Fire" being one of her favorites. Barbara lived within a few blocks of the Washington Cathedral in the same garden apartment/condo complex for 52 years, a place not really suited for pets, so she shared the dogs and cats of others as they walked by her condo, always kneeling to pet one and make a fuzz over it and she always gave generously to her local Humane Society.

Surprisingly, Barbara never choose to marry or have children. She did however have lots of relatives and a number of close friends all of whom loved, respected and appreciated her throughout her life.

On about an acre of high ground overlooking the wide water of the Erie Canal in the little town of Port Gibson New York lies the old Pleasant Valley Cemetery, its gravestones nestled among mature maples, peaceful and serene, and just a few hundred yards from Barbara's grandparents farm. Here on the morning of May 10 she was laid to rest next to her parents as had been her wish for as long as I could remember. Her duties done, her gifts to others given, her long walk through life completed, she was home at last from her world travels. In the church that day the preacher spoke of her many accomplishments as he had been so directed for he had no personal knowledge of Barbara himself. One by one a few of us stood up and witnessed her passing with words recounting again her scientific contributions, her desire for long walks and her love of desserts but that which was of greatest importance evaded us for her character and her humanity were not mentioned. Barbara Bedette, was an extraordinary human being. Highly intelligent and motivated for sure but more importantly she was kind and generous, thoughtful, caring and considerate of others. She put everyone and their needs before her own. She was always willing to help someone else and yet was someone who rarely asked for help herself. She listened to your problems for hours, never mentioning her own and she praised your success while never boasting of her own achievements. She loved dogs and cats and all of natures little creatures. She found beauty in all things whether they be butterflies, or shells, a tree, a gem or mineral, a painting, music or just a sunny day. There were no curse words in her vocabulary, no anger in her voice, no malice, no hate. Gentle, friendly, bright and warm in spirit she wore a smile through all of life's trails. She gave for more than she ever received. She never complained about her lot in life and faced each day with courage and determination to the end. For those among you who believe in God and miracles she was surely one of His miracles.

Barbara was the last surviving member of the old (1954-1982) P & S Branch's group of Cenozoic Mollusk workers. Though hired as a geologist, later re-titled as a technician and finally known as a research collaborator, Barbara was, in the truest since of the word "curator", our finest "curator"of Cenozoic Mollusks since Dall and Burns. I should add that in my 39 years at the Smithsonian I have witnessed the passing of many friends and colleagues, some giants in their field, but I have never suffered so great a loss as that of Barbara's unexpected departure. In what she accomplished and in the way she conducted her life, Barbara A. Bedette was indeed a GIANT herself.

The halls that beaconed her are not as aglow or warm as when she walked among us but her legacy lives on in her accomplishments. In a circa 1979 rough draft of a letter she wrote to her branch chief Barbara states: "My objectives are to leave behind some tangible lasting valuable contribution to the Survey and Cenozoic mollusks researchers ". Though failing to persuade her branch chief to allow her to continue her work on a catalogue of the type and figured Cenozoic Mollusks in the collections of the USNM she more than fulfilled the substance of her wish - for she was both the architect and workforce that created the infrastructure of the National Museum's Cenozoic Mollusk collection from which so many have and continue to benefit. Her legacy lives on and as long as one of us remembers her name, so does she.