Barbara Washburn was born in 1914. A graduate of Smith College, she married mountaineer-explorer-mapmaker Bradford Washburn in 1940. Six years later, climbing with her husband, she became the first woman to reach the summit of 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak. The mother of three, she also became one of the nation's earliest remedial reading teachers, and received awards in several fields of endeavor.