Marilyn W. Barbe, 97, of Honesdale, died on June 22, 2025 at Wayne Woodlands Manor after a long illness.

Momo, as she was known, was born on March 8, 1928, five minutes before her twin sister Miriam (Mimi), to Francis E. and Florence L. Wood, in Conifer, New York, a logging village in the Adirondacks that is now mostly gone. They grew up in Millerton, New York, where their father was the high school principal.

She graduated from Cornell University with a BA in mathematics in 1949, and later received an MEd in counseling from Penn State. After Cornell, she taught math in Davenport, New York, then moved to Honesdale to join Mimi at Honesdale High School, and to confuse a generation of students unable to tell them apart. Later she became a guidance counselor at Honesdale High and remained there till retirement in 1991. (Mimi had meanwhile become a guidance counselor at Wallenpaupack, confusing a generation of college representatives who visited the two schools in succession.)

In 1967 Marilyn Wood married Dr. Walter B. Barbe, who had come to town with his son Fred to become the editor of Highlights for Children. They moved to a beautiful property in Atco, where they lived for more than four decades, returning to Honesdale in 2014 as their health began to make the big place impractical. Walter died in October 2020.

She was an Elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Honesdale and sang in the choir, and in recent years she attended the Bethany Presbyterian Church. In retirement, and before, she was a longtime member of the board of the Friends of the Wayne County Public Library, a patron of the Dorflinger-Suydam Wildlife Sanctuary, and an active volunteer with the Wayne County Food Pantry.

Momo was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Walter Barbe, Fred Barbe, her brother Rutson Wood of Cincinnati, and her sister Miriam Kreitner. She is survived by six nieces and nephews: Gregg Barbe (Shirley) of Mount Morris; Pamela Olivet (Dave) of Escondido, California; Barbara Hacker (Don) of Lindenwald, Ohio; Kenneth Kreitner (Mona) of Honesdale; Raymond Wood (Kim) of Cincinnati; and Kathryn Kreitner of Honesdale.

The family would like to thank the staff of Wayne Woodlands, the Hospice Team at Wayne Memorial Hospital, and the several caregivers who kept her in her home for so long.

Visitation will be Tuesday, July 1, at Bethany Presbyterian Church; visitation at 2:00 pm, service at 3:00. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Wayne County Food Pantry, the Bethany Presbyterian Church, the Dorflinger-Suydam Wildlife Sanctuary, or any other worthy charity.