Barbara Stepp Neilson
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Barbara Stepp Neilson recently passed away at her home in Dorset after a long, gutty, grinding battle against cancer.
She was born in Odessa, Texas and graduated in 1965 from Permian High School ? the high school featured in "Friday Night Lights." Understanding that there was a bigger world out there, she headed to Houston right after her graduation and talked her way into a job operating a key-punch machine, having never seen one before. Today's kids might scoff at her skills, but her character, courage and hard-won talents would serve her well for the rest of her life. Those talents included cooking, short-hand dictation, typing at a high rate of speed, organization, attention to detail, and a never-ending willingness to take a chance.
Her next stop was New York City, where she found a place to stay at the neighborhood YWCA before finding an apartment in Hell's Kitchen and a job at the Ziff Davis Publishing Company.
Ziff Davis was a giant in the trade and consumer magazine business. All of their consumer/enthusiast publications were the leaders in their specialities: Car & Driver, Boating, Skiing, Cycle, Modern Bride (!), Flying, HiFi & Stereo, Modern Photography, and several others. After a stint at Boating Magazine she was promoted to the position of Executive Secretary for Bill Ziff and the rest of chiefs who ran an enterprise with 1000 employees.
It was here where she met her future husband Cook, who was Editor of Cycle Magazine.
Cook persuaded Ziff to let him relocate Cycle to the West Coast in 1972. As soon as he arrived in LA he realized he couldn't live without Stepper, and invited her to join him. Summoning the nerve that characterized her whole life, she rented a car, packed up and headed to California.
With a sterling resum? and a work ethic as strong as iron, she quickly found employment with a major oil company, where she stayed until she grew fascinated with the idea of becoming a Certified Court Reporter. Abandoning the oil company because she was having to learn an entirely new trade, she put herself through school while holding down two waitressing jobs. Passing her Certification test, she became the official reporter for the Federal Court in Los Angeles.
After two years in California she and Cook built a small home high in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking Malibu and the Pacific.
She was thriving, and Cook's magazine was doing well too.
But after 7 years of sunny California living they both grew restless, and found themselves missing the changing of seasons.
So in 1979 they sold their house, paid off their mortgage, said a somewhat-reluctant goodbye to their wonderful West Coast friends, and headed to Dorset, where Cook's parents and two sisters lived. They were welcomed here by Carol Neilson, the parents, Ace and Mary Rita Manley, Kit and Dan Mosheim, and Bruce and Rachel Bowlen, all of whom became lifelong friends.
While Cook was learning to be a commercial photographer, Stepper supported them both by working as many as three jobs as a secretary and waitress.
Later, when Cook's photography career started to be successful, she worked full-time as his assistant/model, doing all the planning and coordination that kept the enterprise between the guardrails.
All her life Stepper was loving, loyal, unbelievably hard-working, talented, capable, true to herself and unflinchingly honest and direct. Her loss will be deeply felt by everyone whose lives she touched.
A going-away party in scheduled for August 21 at the bridge across the Mettowee River on Connaway Road in North Dorset, around 2pm.