Barbara (Bobbie) Payne Atchley died March 4 at Lifecare of Nashoba Valley in Littleton, where she had lived for the past six years. She was 88 and had been a resident of Lincoln since 1956 and a summer resident of Edgartown since 1967.

Barbara Standish Payne was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Dec. 16, 1921; her parents were Bruce Bullard Payne and Marion (Monnie) Woodward Payne. She grew up in Wilkes-Barre and graduated from the Wyoming Seminary school in 1939. She enrolled at Wheaton College but left because she felt she was not contributing to the war effort. She later enrolled at the Katharine Gibbs school where she received her degree. She worked in the pathology laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. In the summer of 1953 she met Dana Winslow Atchley Jr., who had recently divorced. They were married on May 1, 1954. They had four daughters: Marion (Quita), Abigail, Cornelia and Katherine.

An avid tennis player, sailor and horsewoman, Bobbie loved to ride her horse Joplin at Pimpneymouse Farm on Chappaquiddick, and sail her Herreshoff Jumpstart during summers on the Vineyard. And she was mother to all — her expansive family of children, stepchildren, grandchildren, step-grandchildren and their friends filled her house during winters in Lincoln and summers in Edgartown, always to her great delight. She loved having young people around her and unfailingly took a keen interest in what they were doing with their lives. Her daughter Abbie died in May of 1977 at the age of 21, and the loss profoundly affected Bobbie for the remainder of her life. Following Abbie’s death, the Atchleys founded the Anorexia Bulemia Care Organization, known as ABC. Dana Atchley Jr. died in 1995.

She was a member of the Edgartown Yacht Club and the Chappaquiddick Beach Club.

She is survived by her three daughters: Marion (Quita) Woodward Atchley Schillhammer of Acton, Cornelia Phister Atchley of Alexandria, Va., and Katherine (Katie) Saltonstall Atchley of Charlestown; two sisters, Marion P. (Bonnie) Tubbs of Haverford, Pa., and Elizabeth P. Shannon of Englewood, Colo.; two grandchildren, Marion (Molly) Woodward Merrick of Boston and Dana Atchley Merrick of Acton; three stepdaughters, Polly Allen of Lebanon, N.H., Betsy Rowland of Edmond, Okla., and Sarah Atchley of Dalton; six step-grandchildren and four step-great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband, and daughter Abigail Adams Atchley, she was predeceased by her stepson Dana Atchley 3rd in 2000.

A memorial service will be held at the First Parish in Lincoln at a date to be announced. Contributions in her memory may be made to Multi-service Eating Disorder Assoc. (MEDA), 92 Pearl street, Newton, MA 02158 (medainc.org).