For the week of January 2 - 8, 2002

Beloved horsewoman passes away Christmas Eve

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Barbara Cimino had a life full of adventure and love. She and her husband Jim celebrated their 55^th anniversary on Thanksgiving day, and on Christmas Eve, following a long illness, she passed away surrounded by her family in Ketchum. She was 79.

Barbara Cimino, who died Dec. 24 in Ketchum, worked as a Red Cross nurse during World War II.

Though the Ciminos are known as a very private family, they were well known for their good deeds, quiet support of various groups, and involvement in charities—not just here in the Wood River Valley, where they maintained a home, but also in Puerto Rico, where they lived half the year, and where their five children were raised.

Her mother, Helen Ruff Scribner, had been a Red Cross nurse in World War I, and Barbara followed in her footsteps by enlisting as a volunteer in World War II. And it was on Thanksgiving day in 1945 that an Army lieutenant walked into a canteen in Antwerp, Belgium, on his way to Paris. Barbara and Jim Cimino dated for a year after the war and were married in 1946 at Omaha on Thanksgiving day.

Because her father had worked for Union Pacific in Nebraska, and her mother had taught skating in Sun Valley, Barbara had been in here and returned for her honeymoon. By 1975, the Ciminos had bought the old Moritz house on Warm Springs Road.

The Sun Valley lifestyle and climate suited Barbara, who was an avid horsewoman. She used some land they owned in Eagle, west of Boise, to start a riding academy for youngsters, called Once Upon a Horse. Also, for Wood River Valley children she and her good friend, Pat Weaver, started The Wood River Pony Club, on her property in Warm Springs in the mid-1980s. "She was always there," said Weaver. Barbara lent her own horses out for children who wanted to learn to ride.

"We ran around to horse shows together," Weaver added. "She was a very accomplished rider."

In Boise, at Barbara’s initiative, the Ciminos recently bought a stretch of open ground in the foothills, put in a pond and planted its banks with natural vegetation to attract birds and other wildlife. She worked with The Nature Conservancy and biologists to have the correct environment, Weaver said.

"She had a lot of young friends, and was very interested in promoting young people," Weaver said.

"She was very private but she didn’t mind stepping forward for issues. And helping people who didn’t have the means up here. She was a real good friend, very faithful and loving."

As a trained artist, who had studied at Mills College, she often put her talents to use for other causes, too. During the war she decorated posters for dances, for instance.

And vital to her make up were her three best friends from grade school. They spoke or wrote to each other every week of their lives. One of them preceded her in death only two weeks ago.

Her mother, who was the first woman in Minnesota to earn her pilot’s license, gave her the "instinct to try anything, and not to be afraid of life," said Chris Millspaugh, a family friend, who is writing a biography of Barbara for her family.

Jim and Barbara Cimino formed the Cimino Foundation years ago and it continues to support various causes, including scholarships at the Wood River High School, charity groups here and in Puerto Rico. Last fall they also donated property for a small park in Ketchum at the corner of Main and Sixth streets.

"Her family came first," Millspaugh said, "and then horses."

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An obituary appears on Page A20 of the printed edition of the Idaho Mountain Express.

 

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