Barbara Steuart Hans Waller, affectionately known as “Bobby,” 96, died September 12, 2020, at Goodwin House, Alexandria, Virginia.  

Born September 18, 1923, in New London, Connecticut, she summered in Little Compton with her mother, Sue Walker, and stepfather, Joe Walker and families beginning in the late 1940s through 2002.   

She grew up at Dodon, the farm of her maternal grandmother, in Davidsonville, Maryland. She attended Roland Park Country Day School and Hannah More Academy in Baltimore. 

She moved to New York at 13 and attended the Dalton School in Manhattan. She earned her BA at Smith College (1945), graduating early on an accelerated course due to World War II. Due to her linguistic skills, she was recruited by OSS as a code breaker in Kandi, Ceylon, in late 1944 until war’s end. She married John H. Waller on July 2, 1947, who pre-deceased her in November, 2004. 

For over a decade Bobby was an editor at the Library of Congress, Recordings for the Blind, in Washington DC before she retired in 1980. 

Bobby’s charm and sense of humor were infectious. She was the life of many a party. She was a marvelous cook and generous hostess. Her elegance and friendship enriched the lives of many friends from Tehran, Mashed, Delhi, Khartoum, DC, Little Compton, Rhode Island, and in her homes in Washington, D.C. and McLean, Virginia. 

Bobby is survived by a brother, Steven Walker of Little Compton; three children, Stephanie Robinson, Gregory Waller, and Maria “Mia” Waller, who reside in northern Virginia; two grandchildren, Elliot Robinson, and Arielle Rondon; and six great grandchildren.