Barbara Rothschild Simon was born in Chicago in 1928, the eldest child of Nathan and Esther Rothschild, and made a career decision at an early age between life as an artist or a singer. She chose to paint.
Her passion for art led her to study at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Students League of New York, and the College of New Rochelle where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.
She left Chicago for Greenwich Village in New York City, and at first worked in commercial art. While volunteering as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she met advertising executive Leon Katz. Barbara and Lee married in 1955, and she took the name Barbara R. Katz. They eventually settled a few miles north of the city in New Rochelle, where their son Joe was born.
Barbara developed a thriving career in the fine arts, primarily in oil, acrylic, and watercolor painting, as well as other media. Her work won many awards in juried shows, was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and sold at numerous galleries and exhibitions. She was a professor of art at Mercy College in New York, taught art in public schools and community programs, and led art therapy classes for the elderly. She also volunteered to sing and play the piano or guitar at public events, even performing the difficult vocal notes of the Star-Spangled Banner.
In the 1980s she married science teacher Harry Simon, took the name Barbara R. Simon, and retired to Boca Raton, FL, where she taught art at the Boca Raton Museum and continued producing award-winning work through the 1990s, becoming as well-known in that region as she was in New York. After the death of her beloved husband in 2004, she moved to Cupertino, California, to be near her son and his family. She passed away peacefully there in 2022.