Wellsville, N.Y. - Barbara Marks, 87, died peacefully in her sleep in the early morning on Jan. 18, 2010, in the Wellsville Manor.

Barbara moved to Amherst in 1982 and was a resident of Southeast Street and The Arbors. She moved to western New York state a year and a half ago to be near her son and daughter-in-law. Her husband, Frederick Marks, predeceased her in 2005.

Born Jan. 7, 1923, in Boston, she was the daughter of the late Ann and Sam Falk. Growing up in St. Louis, she graduated from the School of Fine Arts at Washington University.

Barbara's passion throughout her life was art, craft and cooking. She trained as a silversmith in the 1940s and put her soldering skills to work building munitions in World War II. After meeting her husband in New York City in 1950, they became one of the original residents of Levittown on Long Island.

Barbara was the 1958 Chicken Cooking Queen of the United States, winning a national competition sponsored by the chicken growers of the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware. She wrote a cookbook titled "The Family Secret Cookbook," illustrated by Ivy Bottini.

In the early 1960s she opened "The Gallery Beyond The Blue Door," which exhibited fine art and pottery. Later in the 1960s Barbara followed her interest in pottery making, studying at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and maintaining a studio in her home. In the early 1970s she was the director of the Brant Lake Arts Center in the Adirondacks.

Upon moving to Amherst, Barbara was a resident at the Leverett Art Center and an early supporter of the Brookfield Farm in South Amherst. In her later years she took up photography and the writing of poetry.

She leaves two sons, Graham Marks of Alfred, N.Y., and Douglas Marks of Geneva, N.Y.; and two grandchildren, Arley Marks of Providence, R.I., and Annabeth Marks of Santa Fe, N.M.

A remembrance will be held in Amherst on a date to be announced.