A magazine illustrator and lyricist, Barer was famous for writing the words to the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress, based on the Princess and the Pea fairy tale, that launched Carol Burnett’s career.
But millions of children, current and past, know another of his works better: he wrote the lyrics to “Here I Come to Save the Day” — the theme of The Mighty Mouse Playhouse cartoon series. Barer died August 25 of cancer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 75.