Babbette Latham

1930 - 2021

Babbette Latham
July 26, 1930 - Dec. 14, 2020
Resident of Palo Alto
On December 14th 2020, Babbette Latham age 90, wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother passed away peacefully in the early morning hours at her childhood home in Palo Alto after a long battle with dementia. Her beloved caregiver, Sia Mahe was by her side.
Babbette was born in Snohomish, Washington to Kate and Bill Snitjer. They moved to Palo Alto California when Babbette was a baby. She attended Stanford Elementary School, Jordan Junior High school and Palo Alto Senior High school graduating in 1948. After High School she attended the University of Oregon. She married Mark Latham in 1952.
Babbette was a stay-at-home mom and raised 5 children. She leaves behind a happy and healthy family: Kate Latham, Peter Latham (Fancy), Amy Hartinger (Jake), Marta Apple (Dan), and Nancy Latham; along with 8 grandchildren: Alexandra (John), Ryan, Sam, Colman, Dylan, Bryn, Rafe and Asha and one great grandchild (Emerson).
Babbette was passionate about the great outdoors and she supported the Sierra Club for many years. Her passion for the environment extended to a dedication to social justice more broadly. During the 1990s, she stood with Women in Black, who met each week for vigils in Palo Alto to bear silent witness to the ravages of war in the Middle East. She was also a very early adopter of the quest to understand one's own place in systems of oppression, attending white privilege workshops decades before they became commonplace. She loved being a Girl Scout and later became a scout leader for her children's troops. She was an avid reader, and passed that love on to her children and grandchildren. She could often be seen biking around Palo Alto, doing sun salutations at Gamble Gardens, and teaching various classes in body movement around the Bay Area.
She will be dearly missed by her family.


View the online memorial for Babbette Latham