Barbara Saltzman is filled with such energy and love that she is an inspiration to listen to and watch. She brings The Jester's gift of laughter to thousands of children and adults. It doesn't matter if she's readingThe Jester Has Lost His Jingle to children in a school, or to children undergoing chemotherapy in a hospital, or to teachers looking for new ways to help children laugh and learn, or to health care workers who are learning how to use The Jester & Pharley to cheer up their patients, or to business leaders hoping to inspire themselves and their colleagues. Barbara Saltzman delivers The Jester's message with such passion and enthusiasm that anyone who listens to her becomes a true believer in the power of laughter and the joy of life.

In schools and hospitals, auditoriums and libraries, bookstores and business conference rooms throughout America, Barbara Saltzman is a sought-after inspirational speaker. The dynamic grandmother, who established a reputation as a journalist for more than 30 years, is now known as "The Jester's Mom."

The mother of David Saltzman, the author an dillustrator of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle, has worked tirelessly to bring her son's book to children and adults across the country — first publishing the book, and then telling the world about it.

Barbara's success has been astounding - more than 300,000 copies of The Jester are in circulation and she has been featured by hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and television and radio programs bringing David's message to a national audience. She also has managed to see that more than 60,000 Jester books and 60,000 Jester & Pharley Dolls have been donated to hospitalized and special-needs children throughout the United States.

She is the guiding light behind The Jester & Pharley Phund's mission.

An entertainment editor at The Los Angeles Times for 22 years, Barbara left the newspaper in February, 1996, to run The Jester Co. full time. Since then she has traveled from one end of the country to the other, reading The Jester Has Lost His Jingle in bookstores, hospitals, libraries, schools, and other venues. Wherever she goes, The Jester & Pharley remain in the hearts of children and adults who will never forget The Jester's Mom and these wonderful characters.

Barbara attended the University of Southern California where she became one of the first female editors of the Daily Trojan newspaper, won the Emma Bovard Award for the highest grade point average of any graduating woman, was named to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and received numerous other academic honors.

At USC, she met her husband-to-be, Joe, while working on the student newspaper. They were married on July 1, 1962, and had two children: Michael, now a film and television writer-producer, and David. Both sons would go to Chadwick School, a private school on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California, and then to Yale University. Husband Joe was an award-winning CBS news and documentary producer in Los Angeles for 10 years before becoming a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California in 1974 where he created the broadcast journalism sequence in the School of Journalism. He is now associate dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at USC.

Barbara worked for CBS television, The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and wrote as a free-lancer for numerous magazines. In 1974, she joined The Los Angeles Times. During her 22-year stay at The Times, she was one of the highest ranking female editors, serving as the daily Calendar editor and the editor of TV Times.

When David was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease while in his last year at Yale, he was at work on a senior project that would influence the lives of thousands. It was the children's book that would become The Jester Has Lost His Jingle, with its uplifting message of hope and joy. Barbara promised David that she would see that the book was published - even if she had to do it herself - and that she would make sure it would get into the hands of every child and adult who needed it. In 1994, Barbara, Joe and Michael founded The Jester Co., Inc., to see that the book was published as David envisioned it — as a hardcover with museum-quality reproductions of the book's 64 colorful pages and David's wonderful use of rhyme and language intact.

In 1995, five years after David's death, the book was published and soon America heard The Jester's story on "Good Morning America," CNN and "The Today Show," and read about Barbara's mission in Good Housekeeping and People magazine. More than 150 newspapers and magazines, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and USA Today, have told the story of David, The Jester and The Jester's Mom.

Now working tirelessly on behalf of The Jester & Pharley Phund, The Jester's Mom travels the country inspiring children and helping youngsters realize that it's up to them to make a difference, it's up to them to care.