Kathleen Agnes Baird

Kathleen Hart Baird passed away on May 14, 2023 in her residence in Decatur, Georgia. Kathi was born in Brooklyn in 1947. As the daughter of an army officer, she lived in many places in her youth, including the Philippines, Japan and Germany. She graduated from Ursuline College (now Bellarmine University) in Louisville, KY. After college, she moved to Atlanta where she became a probation officer with Atlanta traffic court. In 1970 she met Joe Baird, a student at Emory Law School, on a blind date, and they were married in 1972. They had two children, Elisabeth and Joseph. Kathi began a thirty-year career in banking with Citizens and Southern National Bank in 1973, and she and Joe moved to Decatur in their retirement in 2007.

Kathi was known for her warm interaction with everyone she met, regardless of their situation in life. She was a wonderful and loving friend, wife, mother and grandmother. She was also known for her incredible sense of humor. She learned many jokes from her father, and insisted on retelling them repeatedly. Her friends and family quickly learned that Ireland was the richest nation on earth because its capitol was always Dublin.

Kathi was always proud of her Irish Catholic heritage, as well as the fact that she was the great-great granddaughter of Peter Hart, who was hailed as the first Union hero of the Civil War for his heroic actions in the defense of Fort Sumter. Although she spent most of her life in the South, she always identified herself as a New Yorker and insisted that Yankee food was superior to Southern cuisine. She hated collard greens, okra, and even boiled peanuts.

Kathi is preceded in death by her parents, Lt. Colonel John and Agnes Hart, her son Joseph Hart Baird, and her brother John V. Hart. She is survived by her devoted husband of fifty years, William Joseph Baird, daughter Elisabeth Garland, and three treasured grandchildren Catherine, Victoria, and Joseph Garland, as well as many other beloved extended family members and a very spoiled and unruly golden retriever.

A funeral mass will be held for Kathi on Saturday, June 10, 2023 at 10 am at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Decatur. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Kathi's memory to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at St. Thomas More.