It's an odd feeling when someone dies that I sat next to in seminary. Kathleen Baskin-Ball, or Kathy Baskin as she was then known, just died after a two-year battle with cancer. Kathy helped me giggle my way through a seminary class called Systematic Theology. As I usually break out in hives at anything systematic, she did me a great service. Systematic Theology (ST) was just as much of a grind as the name implies. ST was to us seminarians what Three-Dimensional Calculus is to engineers. But Kathy made it bearable.
She had long brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, a million-dollar smile, and an infectious laugh that I heard often. Not only did she have an endless supply of cheerful chatter, she seemed to think I was the most eloquent and also the wittiest person she had ever encountered. That was her gift. It says much more about her than me. Kathleen Baskin-Ball was elected clergy leader of the North Texas Conference delegation to last spring's General Conference, a denominational policy-making meeting that draws Methodists from around the world. A good number of those who knew her thought she could have been elected a bishop if she had lived.
She had long brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, a million-dollar smile, and an infectious laugh that I heard often. Not only did she have an endless supply of cheerful chatter, she seemed to think I was the most eloquent and also the wittiest person she had ever encountered. That was her gift. It says much more about her than me. Kathleen Baskin-Ball was elected clergy leader of the North Texas Conference delegation to last spring's General Conference, a denominational policy-making meeting that draws Methodists from around the world. A good number of those who knew her thought she could have been elected a bishop if she had lived.
Goodbye Kathy. I will miss you. The youth of Kathy's church are trying to raise $10,000 for cancer research in her memory. I hope they make it.
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