Judith Barnard, writer, philanthropist, supporter of the arts and liberal political causes, bonne vivante, and friend of many, died on May 6. She was 94.
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| Judith Barnard and Michael Fain | |
From 1980-2005, she wrote with her husband, Michael Fain, under the pseudonym Judith Michael. (Fain survives her.) Beginning with Deceptions, published by Pocket Books and Poseidon Press in 1982, they published 11 bestselling novels that one reviewer called "romances for the thinking person." The books were lively, well-written, thematically and geographically diverse, and featured heroines struggling with unfulfilled lives, single motherhood, poverty, family sexual abuse, and other contemporary problems.
In addition to the Judith Michael books, Barnard also published the novel The Past and Present of Solomon Sorge (1967), many feature stories for Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Tribune during the 1970s, a biography of industrialist Albert Pick, and later a collection of short stories, Crooked Branches on the Family Tree (2018).
Barnard and Fain divided their time between Chicago and Aspen for many years, and were devoted to hiking, skiing, and Aspen culture including the music festival. They were patrons and supporters of Chicago theater and music organizations, and other local cultural institutions and political advocacy organizations. Through the Barnard Fain Foundation they supported science education for youth in Colorado. In their retirement community in Chicago, Judith devoted herself to a residents fund, which awards educational grants to employees' high school and college age children.