Bobbie Friedman

Born Barbara Herta Kletzsch in Hollywood, California, on October 3, 1928, Bobbie Friedman died December 19, 2011, at home with family and friends in Westport, CT, after years of battling dementia. Everyone who came into contact with her felt her loving, vivacious and creative personality. They all loved her, and she loved everybody. She will be deeply missed.

First studying at the Belcher Studios, she was a prima ballerina and danced professionally from childhood. As Miss Plumas County in California, she competed in the Miss America Contest. After graduating Sacramento State College, she went on to teach grade school in Sacramento, Waco, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Durham, New Hampshire, while she traveled with her husband, Drew Friedman, who was in the Air Force, and then while he completed his education. She sang, danced, and played leads in musical comedies, Shakespeare, Streetcar Named Desire, and other productions, lastly in Westport Community Theater performances.

While pursuing a business interest selling antiques as Mr. Scratch Antiques, she also advanced her art interest. Primarily self-taught, several hundred of her paintings and sculptures have been purchased by collectors throughout the United States and England. She studied with sculptors Stanley Bleifeld, James Hart, and Marge Walzer, and exhibited with Mr. Bleifeld in group shows at General Electric, Xerox, and Richardson Vicks, among others. She has also shown in Genesis Gallery, Half Moon Gallery, and Images. Purchasers include executives from the above corporations, IBM, and Standard Brands. She did the design for Onion Alley''s Restaurant interior, the logo, all menu drawings, and the wooden hanging sign of the logo which won second place in a national compe-tition. She also designed the Wild Scallion Restaurant logo, and all menus, as well as designing buildings in Westport, Connecticut, and Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and additions to many homes, and interiors. Bobbie created the sculpture of the bridge bearings at the end of the Westport Library Riverwalk.

She is survived by her husband Drew Friedman, in Westport, and her son, Trey Friedman, of Sharon, Conn.

Memorial Contributions can be sent on her behalf to the Community Arts Center, Inc., 39 Imperial Avenue, Westport, CT 06880, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization of which she was an officer and director. Arts Center contributions will be used for the development of a site under Bobbie''s name at a Memorial Park under construction at Cobb''s Mill.

We will celebrate her life in a wooded, waterfall setting with many educational projects, and social activities. Memorial services will be held in the future at Cobb''s Mill Inn. If you wish to attend, please notify Drew Friedman by email (drewf123@optonline.net), or otherwise so you can be put on the mailing list.