Meet Eric Carle’s Second Wife Barbara Morrison: Did They Have Children?

Eric Carle’s second wife was Barbara Morrison, often referred to as Bobbie. They married in 1973 and shared a deep commitment to the arts and education.

For more than 30 years, he shared his life with his second wife, Barbara Morrison, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Together, they co-founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2002, inspired by their visits to picture book museums in Japan.

This 44,000-square-foot museum is dedicated to the art of children’s books and is located near Hampshire College. Since its opening in 2002, the museum has welcomed over 500,000 visitors, including more than 30,000 schoolchildren.

The museum stands as a testament to their shared passion for children’s literature and the visual arts, providing a space where the magic of picture books can be celebrated and explored by future generations.

While he and Barbara Morrison enjoyed a long and happy marriage, they did not have any children together. Eric had two children, Rolf and Cirsten, from his first marriage to Dorothea. Barbara was a significant influence in Eric’s life and work until her passing in 2015.

Throughout his life, Eric Carle received numerous awards and honors, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award) from the American Library Association in 2003. This award recognizes authors or illustrators whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature.