Dr. Barbara (Attebery) Scott, PhD, 91, of Champaign, died peacefully on Friday, June 25, 2021, at home with family by her side.
Visitation will be held Thursday, July 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Baier Family Funeral Services, 406 E. Pells St., Paxton. Funeral services will be conducted Friday, July 2, beginning at 1 p.m. at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1203 W. Greetn St., Urbana. A reception with viewing will precede the service at the church. Burial will follow at Glen Cemetery in Paxton.
Dr. Scott was born Dec. 6, 1929, at Hillsboro Hospital, one of twin girls to Mr. and Mrs. Homer Attebery. She married John T. Scott, Jr. in 1953, and he preceded her in death.
She and her twin, Catherine, had an older sister, Mary Ellen. She grew up on a farm outside of Hillsboro in Montgomery County, and was born into a family where education was highly valued for both boys and girls, along with the strong belief that hard work was a blessing.
Dr. Scott and her sisters attended Auburn school, a one-room schoolhouse built on land that was donated by her father, and they graduated from Hillsboro High School. She was 16 years old as a freshman at the University of Illinois (U of I).
She graduated from U of I with a bachelors degree in general home economics. After graduation, she served as a home advisor in the U of I Extension Service in White and Kankakee counties.
When Dr. Scott’s husband went into the Army, where he was stationed at Fort Lee, VA for officer’s training school, she had their first son, John R. Her husband was later stationed in France, and she sailed the Atlantic with their one-year-old son on the USS U.S. to join her husband in Europe for two years.
After returning from Europe, she and her husband farmed on his parents’ land in Ford County, later moving to Ottawa, where her husband worked in the State Extension Service. Their second child, a daughter, Anne M., was born while in Ottawa.
Dr. Scott and her husband returned to school for their PhDs at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. Their third child, Carl A., was born as she was completing her masters and PhD degrees. She earned and was awarded the first doctor of philosophy in the field of child development, marriage and family relationships at Iowa State University in 1967.
She and her husband settled with their children in Champaign in 1965. She worked for 12 years as a school psychologist in several Illinois counties at all grade levels while her husband worked as a professor at the U of I in agricultural economics.
Dr. Scott was also a teacher at Iowa State University, U of I, San Francisco State University, Parkland College and at a private pre-school. She later earned her realtor license and sold homes in Champaign for many years.
She was elected to the Champaign County Board. In her retirement, she managed her Montgomery County farmland and was a volunteer driver for an interfaith group providing transportation on-call to local hospitals, family services and the cancer society well into her 80’s.
A member of the NAACP, Dr. Scott was involved in civil rights issues. She was stopped by a sheriff’s department in Mississippi after dark while she was a passenger in a car owned by a local family of color. She took her children to church at St. Luke’s to experience the music and the choir of Willie Summerville on several occasions.
She is survived by her children, John R. (wife Molly Fay) Scott, Anne (husband Loarn) Robertson and Carl A. Scott; nine grandchildren; five great-grandchildren, plus one on the way; seven nephews; three nieces; and numerous great-nephews and great-nieces who she loved dearly.
In addition to her husband, Dr. Scott was preceded in death by her parents; and two sisters, twin Catherine and Mary Ellen.
Online condolences to the family may be left at www.baierfuneralservices.com.
