Barbara Williams Merriam died on July 16 in the embrace of her family and the caring staff at Riverside Health Care & Rehabilitation in Missoula. She was 99.

Barbara was born on April 2, 1927, to Mabel and Ray Williams at the family ranch outside Deer Lodge. She liked to say she was born during lambing season as the dinner bell rang, calling the ranch hands to supper. The home ranch was one of five Williams and Pauly sheep-and-cattle ranches built by her grandfather, starting in 1882, with his partner, Peter Pauly.

The family spent summers on the ranch, where Barbara grew up riding horses and exploring the beautiful valley. They spent winters in town in Deer Lodge, where Barbara was nurtured by her loving Aunt Maud and Uncle Joe, who lived close by. She was an A student through school and graduated as valedictorian of her class at Powell County High School.

At 16, Barbara began studying voice with Professor John Lester at the University of Montana. She took the Milwaukee train to Missoula and the streetcar to campus for her lessons. She began school at UM in 1945 as a music major, where she continued studying with Prof. Lester and traveled the state as a member of the UM singing group the Jubileers. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

As a sophomore, she answered an ad in the student newspaper, The Kaimin, seeking a singer for the Al Merriam dance band. Missoula native Alan hired her, and she was excited to earn $5 a night singing with the band on the weekends. She married the bandleader on Aug. 29, 1947.

Two weeks later, Barbara and Alan departed for Evanston, Illinois, outside Chicago, for Alan to attend graduate school and Barbara to continue her undergraduate education at Northwestern University. Barbara earned her BA in music in 1950 and Alan his master’s degree. He discovered anthropology in a class at Northwestern and embraced the field of ethnomusicology, where he combined his cultural anthropology and music studies to study people through their music and earned a doctorate in 1951.

Alan was interested in African studies, and the young couple set off for Africa in 1951 for post-doctoral work. Barbara served as research assistant and photographer in the Belgian Congo, Rwanda and Burundi during five months.

Alan and Barbara returned to Evanston, where Alan taught at Northwestern for two years, and their first daughter, Ginny, was born in 1954. They spent two years in Milwaukee while Alan taught at the University of Wisconsin, happily returning to Evanston when he landed a permanent teaching job at Northwestern. In 1956, they had their second daughter, Paige.

In 1959, Barbara and Alan set off to do anthropological field work in the Belgian Congo, 3-year-old and 5-year-old in tow. They landed in the bush village of Lupupa, population 240, for most of a year. Barbara took thousands of professional photographs while Alan studied the people’s culture and music. Barbara did field work too, interviewing women in the village about domestic activities they would only share with another woman. Alan and Barbara left hastily in 1960 during unrest caused by the Congolese fight for independence from Belgium.

In 1962, Barbara gave birth to their third daughter, Cynthia. Alan was offered the exciting chance to found and lead an African Studies Program at Indiana University, and the family left for Bloomington, Indiana, when Cynthia was three weeks old.

Barbara settled in to 12 years of service as a mom and a faculty wife, producing parties for visiting dignitaries and pursuing her own interests in music. She and musical friends founded Friday Musicale, featuring their performances. The family spent summers at their cabin on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, “home” for the summers full of backpacking, fishing and visits from extended family and training for her daughters in trout frying, huckleberry pie-making and biscuit baking in a wood stove.

Barbara returned to school when her daughters were in school. She and Alan were divorced in 1974 as she made her own way through a doctorate in Counseling Psychology. In 1979, she landed her first professional job at 52, at the counseling center at Washington State University in Pullman, where she developed a program for students suffering from eating disorders. She was very loved and valued at WSU. She retired in 1991 to Missoula, where she set up a private counseling practice and spent 15 happy and healthy years with her daughters, making friends, traveling and supervising graduate students at UM.

Barbara suffered devastating breast cancer in 2006. During the next 20 years, she experienced several bouts of cancer, back surgeries and then a diagnosis of dementia. Her daughters arranged a series of care facilities as her abilities declined, and she spent her last three and a half years at Riverside Health Care & Rehabilitation. Her care there was outstanding, and the wonderful, giving staff grew to love her.

Those who knew her will remember Barbara for her brains and her beauty, her grace, her gentle but firm manner, her beautiful soprano voice, her easy laugh and her wise and funny sayings that will live on in her daughters.

Barbara is survived by two daughters, Ginny (Bradley Layton) and Paige (Philip McMurray) of Missoula; niece Nichole Fuller (Jonathan), nephew Dain Adams (Meranda), nephew Mark Payne (Nan Brandenbergerpayne), nephew Edward Williams, niece Janet Williams and niece Sally Jones; and dear second cousin Susan Naprstek.

Her family cannot thank enough the kind, loving, professional staff and Dr. Lisa Milch at Riverside, as well as Dr. Linda Reis, Barbara’s oncologist for 20 years, and Charlene De Grassi, the palliative care nurse practitioner who so greatly helped her daughters during the last five months. We would love to name you all.

The family will hold a Celebration of Life on Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. at University Congregational Church in Missoula. She will be buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Deer Lodge in a private family ceremony.

The family suggests a memorial contribution in Barbara’s honor to the University of Montana School of Music. Address the contribution to the University of Montana Foundation, 950 Arthur Ave., P.O. Box 7159, Missoula, MT 59807-7159. Note on the check School of Music Impact Fund.