Barbara Atkinson

Barbara "Bobbie" Joan Dittmer Atkinson, age 92, passed away on February 10, 2026, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Bobbie, as she was known to all, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. The daughter of Dr. Herbert Gerard Dittmer and Cora McGouldrick Dittmer, and stepmother Helen Lane Dittmer. She graduated from the Berkeley Institute (now the Berkeley Carroll School) in 1950, and the same year made her debut at the Yuletide Ball in Brooklyn. Bobbie was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, class of 1954, with a major in French and minor in chemistry. She attended the Middlebury College Summer School of French after graduation, having also attended the University for Foreign Students in Perugia, Italy after her junior year.

Bobbie was a member of the Junior League of Brooklyn and later Washington D.C, where she worked for the Department of Defense for two years. Her work with the League consisted of greeting and assisting foreign dignitaries who arrived in the United States via ship in New York and plane in Washington D.C. In 1956 she married James C. Atkinson in Washington, and they then moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where he was on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. While in Greensboro she taught French in several elementary schools for twenty years and later was a field underwriter for thirteen years for Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company, where she earned the designations of Fellow of the Life Management Institute and Insurance Associate.

Retiring in 1996, Bobbie and her husband moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999 to help with the care of her grandchildren. She is survived by her husband, Dr. James C. Atkinson; her son, James Christopher Atkinson of Miami, Florida; and her daughter, Dr. Pamela A. Bridgeman of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She is also survived by her beloved grandchildren: Dr. Sarah Grace Bridgeman (husband, Caleb Bradley Pardue), Hannah Ruth Bridgeman, John Luke Bridgeman, Rachel Lauren Bridgeman, and Christopher James Atkinson.

Interment will be held privately at the Oak Ridge Memorial Park.

In lieu of flowers contributions in Bobbie's memory may be made to a charity of one's choice.