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BY ROZELLA HARDIN
Editorial Director
rozella.hardin@elizabethton.com
“We’ll be friends forever, won’t we Pooh?” asked Piglet. “Even longer” Pooh answered.
Kathy Baker in many ways was a real-life version of the lovable Winnie the Pooh, everyone’s favorite bear. Kathy endeared herself to those around her and reached out to many others who from time to time needed a helping hand…and a friend. Kathy died Feb. 11 from COVID, but had been undergoing treatment for cancer.
Her son, Dustin, said his mother had the biggest heart of anyone he knew. “She would sacrifice to help others,” he shared. “She was literally drawn to people, especially those in need.”
A friend on the funeral home tribute page noted: “If you ever needed a friend, she was there for you.”
Another wrote: “She had a beautiful heart. She was a wonderful person and friend and was nice and thoughtful to everyone.”
Dustin said his mother loved yard sales. “She loved going to yard sales and she enjoyed having them. I dubbed her the ‘yard sale queen.’ I really didn’t understand until lately that yard sales were her way of reaching out to people. It wasn’t so much about her making money as it was her means of making friends. Mom would sell things for other people. She was always on the hunt for an item for someone else. Just as she collected things to sell, she collected people through her yard sales. I didn’t realize that until a couple of years ago.
“Mom was a simple person, but through her giving and loving, she made everyone else important,” Dustin said. “She was going and doing something for someone almost every day.”
Her going and doing for others had been curtailed some as for the past 12 years she had cared for her mother, who had dementia. “As her condition worsened, she required more attention from Mom, and Mom gladly gave it,” said Dustin.
Next to her friends and family, the church was most important to Kathy. She collected church friends also. Most recently she attended the River’s Edge Dream Center on Highway 19E, where she helped in the food ministry for the homeless. “She didn’t care much for cooking, but she would wash dishes, clean up, and welcome the people. She liked to worship at a church where they had an outside ministry that she could be a part of,” Dustin said.
Kathy also had ties to Southside Free Will Baptist Church and had attended Bible Baptist Church as well as other places of worship.
Oddly, Kathy enjoyed scary movies and Halloween was her favorite holiday. Dustin said from the time he was a little boy even until not long before his mother died, she began their weekend with a scary movie and a Gregg’s pizza. “She enjoyed autumn, going to corn mazes and pumpkin patches. She was a lot of fun. My growing up years were full and a lot of fun, because Mom enjoyed doing fun things with me,” Dustin said.
Kathy also enjoyed animals and would often spend hours helping friends hunt for their missing pets.
In addition to her son, Kathy also is survived by her husband, David, her mother, Mae Blair, a sister, and three brothers.
If you needed a friend, Kathy Baker was there for you. As Winnie the Pooh’s friend, Eeyore said: “A little consideration, a little thought for others makes all the difference.” Kathy Baker made a difference in the lives of a lot of people just by being thoughtful and kind.