Hannah Hume Baird

FLORENCE - Hannah Hume Baird, wife of Glenn F. Baird, M.D., passed away at her home today after a valiant battle with esophageal cancer. Hannah is survived by her two children, Hannah Elizabeth Baird and Glenn Demarcus Whitman Baird, both of Charlotte, North Carolina, her sister, Martha Hume of Nashville, Tennessee, her newphew Bennett Alan Wallace of Louisville and her niece, Kristen Duckett Bear of Littleton, CO. She was born in Stearns, KY, McCreary County, April 8, 1939 and made her home in Florence. Ms. Baird will be remembered as a tireless political activist, a lifetime advocate of women's rights, and for her invaluable contributions to her local community as well as the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Her accomplishments were numerous and diverse. A graduate of Sullins Junior College for Women and the University of Kentucky, Ms. Baird began her career as a teacher with the Jefferson County Schools. After moving to Northern Kentucky, Ms. Baird quickly became an initiator of community improvements and an advocate for many philanthropic causes. Ms. Baird devoted her life's work to three primary areas, political involvement and activism; the advancement of economic and social equality for women and service to her community. Ms. Baird was a grass roots organizer and respected advisor within the democratic party in Kentucky. From the early 1970's until her death, she was a volunteer in many local, state and national campaigns and a mentor for women seeking public office. She was a delegate for President Jimmy carter to the democratic National Convention in 1976 and later served in President Carter's administration as a member of the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity. Ms. Baird was a founding member and chair of the nonpartisan Kentucky Women's Political Causus and active in the local section of this organization for many years. In addition to her involvement in politics and fervent encouragement of women's involvement in the political process, Ms. Baird acted as an advocate for the women in Kentucky throughout her life. Ms. Baird served several terms as a member and Chair of the Kentucky Commission on Women, the oldest such state commission in the United States dedicated to improving the economic and social status of women. She enthusiastically acted as a mentor for women seeking public office as well as those seeking to effect positive changes in their communities. Ms. Baird embraced the Commonwealth and gave her energies to its improvement and preservation; she was a self-educated historian of Kentucky, particularly Boone County and its environs. Her most recent and ambitious community preservation project was the creation and development of the Dinosaur Homestead, now a living history lesson of an 1800'S. working farm in Kentucky and the family that made its home there for hundreds of years. In addition, she served her community and the citizens of Kentucky as a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Greater Cincinnati Community Chest; member of the board of the Greater Cincinnati Red Cross, member of the board of the Northern Kentucky University, Displaced Homemakers Program, speaker and Fund Raiser for the Northern Kentucky Women's Crisis Center; Chair of the Boone County Bicentennial Charter Chair and Founding Member of the Boone County Bicentennial; Charter Chair and Founding Member of the Boone County Arts Council; and member of the board of the Northern Kentucky Leadership Foundation. Ms. Baird received numerous awards during her lifetime, including being named as a Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year and most recently as a "Kentucky Woman Remembered for her contributions to the improvement of the quality of life in Kentucky, and in particular, the lives of women in Kentucky. Instead of flowers, memorials for Hannah Hume Baird may be sent to : The C.W. Hume Scholarship Fund, Somerset Community College, 808 Monticello St., Somerset, KY 42501, ATTN: Ann Zwick. This scholarship, established in 1978 in memory of Hannah's father, Prof. C.W. Hume, provides financial assistance for SCC students from McCreary County, KY, the Appalachian coal-mining area where Hannah was born and where her parents were educators and community benefactors. (Checks should be made payable to Somerset Community College with a notation indicating the contribution should be credited to the C.W. Hume Scholarship Fund). The Dinsmore Homestead Foundation, P.O. Box 453, Burlington, KY 41005; Hannah was instrumental in the foundation of The Dinsmore Homestead, a farm and carefully preserved historic home built in 1842 i Boone County, Kentucky. Now under the direction of The Dinsmore Homestead Foundation, the home and land is open to the public. Visitors can tour the house that contains the original accumulated belongings of five generations of the Dinsmore family and students can learn what rural life was like in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are also hiking trails developed in cooperation with the Kentucky Nature Conservancy and Boone County Parks Department. The Hannah Hume Baird Fund for the Advancement of Women and Children, Northern Kentucky Women's Crisis Center, 835 Madison Ave., Covington, KY 41011; Hannah also helped found the Northern Kentucky Women's Crisis Center, which shelters and advises victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse. In the twenty years since its inception, the Crisis Center has expanded from one site to many and the services it offers have increased accordingly. This newly established fund will help the crisis center to continue to maintain existing services and to expand into new areas of need for the women and children of this area. Guestbook at Legacy.com