BARBARA COMFORT

COMFORT--Barbara. Barbara Comfort, 95, died peacefully on April 22. Known to all as Bobby, she was the sister of Carol Comfort Felker of Mountain Lake, Florida, and the late Walter Rockefeller Comfort III of Tampa, and beloved Auntie Mame to nieces and nephews John Comfort of New York City, Jane F. Matz and Charles J. Felker of Washington, DC, and Stephen C. Felker of Chicago. Bobby lived in New York City, Landgrove, VT, and North Branford, CT. She was born in Nyack, NY, grew up in Engelwood, NJ, and studied painting at the National Academy of Design and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Fountainebleau in Paris. A landscape and portrait painter, Bobby also engaged in many other enterprises: during WWII, she ran a welding factory for Electrons, Inc. that made electronic tubes for the Navy; in the 70's, having started a lucite design company, she invented the first Cuisinart blade holder; in the 80's she became a mystery writer, creating a series of murder mysteries based in Vermont that are still sold throughout the state. Bobby built the first modern house in Landgrove, which was on the cover of American Home in 1949. A bon vivant and world traveler, she would occasionally burst into French songs after dinner. She will be missed greatly by her family and many friends.