Kathleen Moore

News Obituary Article

TUCKER: Kathleen Moore, 90, 'independent spirit' who transformed retirement

By DERRICK HENRY

For Kathleen Moore, retirement was the gateway to a new life.

At age 62, she retired from a 30-year career as an accountant with Southern Railway and promptly began doing all those things she hadn't gotten around to before. She bought her first car, an orange AMC Gremlin, and learned to drive.

"She scared everybody to death on the interstate, but she never had an accident," said her sister, Beth Wilkerson of Duluth.

Ms. Moore bought a piano and began taking lessons. "She played well enough to please herself," her sister said.

She began auditing courses at Georgia State University and at DeKalb College, now Georgia Perimeter College.

And she began volunteering --- as a receptionist at Emory University Hospital and as an assistant at Fernbank Elementary School, teaching reading skills. Sunday afternoons she visited nursing home residents.

A volunteer position at Egleston Children's Hospital turned into a 15-year job as a receptionist.

When Ms. Moore left that position at age 80, she spent six years volunteering at DeKalb Medical Center.

"She was one of the Pink Ladies auxiliary, taking flowers to people in their room, cheering them up. I'd always run into her when I was there visiting patients," said the Rev. Ellynda Lipsey of St. Timothy United Methodist Church in Stone Mountain, who taught Ms. Moore's Bible study class for several years. "Kathleen always had good questions in class. She was a very independent spirit, and spunky."

Kathleen Moore, 90, of Tucker died of complications from a broken hip on Thursday at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth. The funeral was Saturday in Westminster, S.C. Sandifer Funeral Home, Westminster, was in charge of arrangements.

The South Carolina native grew up on a cotton farm. She moved to Atlanta during World War II, helping assemble B-29 Superfortress bombers at the Bell Bomber plant in Marietta, said her brother, Earle Moore of Columbia.

When the war ended, she earned a degree from Marsh Business College and landed a job with Southern Railway.

"She was very loving," her brother said. "She never got married, never had children of her own. Perhaps that's why she spent so much time volunteering with children and why she had such a bond with her nephews and nieces. Kathleen was a happy person."

Survivors include another sister, Margie Kelly of Roswell.

© 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution