Kathleen M. "Kathy" Maddix

Kathleen M. “Kathy” Maddix, 75, died October 7, 2025, in her hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan, from cancer complications after a prolonged fight.

Kathleen grew up as the oldest daughter of seven in a busy, Catholic, sports-loving family on one of the numbered streets in Lakeview. She loved spending summers up on the farm where her mom was born in the thumb of Michigan with a legion of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

In high school, she was swept away by a dashing young Air Force service member, Joseph Maddix, who grew up a few streets over on another of the numbered streets in Lakeview. They were married in 1968 and soon began a lifetime of travel together. During one of their early trips out West in 1969, they hit a slick, hot patch of road and were in a major automobile accident. A spinal cord injury from the accident left Kathleen paralyzed from the legs down and took away her sense of smell.

Kathy treated this as a temporary bump in the road, and after a recovery period where she learned how to live in a wheelchair, she came back to Battle Creek and started a family of her own. Her first of seven children, Michael, was born in 1971, with her youngest, Elisabeth, born in 1985. When Elisabeth entered school, Kathleen went back to college and earned her bachelor’s degree from Siena Heights. Afterward, she became a well-loved academic advisor at Miller College, who understood how important it was for students working their way through college to have every course taken transfer or count toward a degree.

Over the years, Kathleen was active in Suzuki Music education, she served on the St Philip Catholic Central School Board. She actively raised funds for Easter Seals, PBS and the Battle Creek Area Catholic School Foundation. She created a Prayer Warriors group. She was inducted into the St Philip Catholic Central Hall of Fame.

Kathy and Joe never stopped traveling. They took the Maddix Family Van on trips to Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, and the Canadian Rockies, as well as to the Appalachians, Badlands, Everglades, Yosemite, and Shenandoah/Civil War Battlefields. When Joe retired, they discovered cruising and earned Elite Status on Princess Cruises with multiple cruises to Alaska, as well as trips to Hawaii and the Caribbean. Kathy also went on her dream trip to Ireland with daughter Sara. She loved taking mother-daughter trips and constantly saved up for the next one.

She was a big Tigers and Lions fan. She pulled for the Wolverines, for Notre Dame and for Michigan State, in that order (usually). She collected elephants and worked jigsaw puzzles. She will be missed by the many farm owners from around the world who she got to know and whose farms she tended or donated to on Farmville.

She loved her grandchildren dearly and could calm any baby in her arms. Neighbors with foster babies who cried while fighting off the addictions they were born with would be brought down the road for Kathy to hold and allow them to sleep.

Right up until the end, she directed the entire family, always knowing where everyone was on Friend Finder and staying in constant communication. A short time after meeting anyone new, they also knew what was going on with each of Kathy’s children by name.

An Irish tradition says that when some are invited into heaven, the skies open and it rains. The day Kathleen passed over, the weather shifted from sun and heat to a day of rain.

Kathleen was preceded in death by her father, Joseph Bauman, and mother, Beatrice Walsh Bauman. She leaves behind an aching family, her husband, Joseph, her children Michael (Theresa), Theresa, William (Dana), Sara Anne (Pierre), Alexander, Rachel (Kapil) and Elisabeth, as well as her grandchildren, Daniel, Gabrielle, Aris, Jude, Beatrice Grace, Peter, Sebastian, Coralie and Antoine. She is also survived by her siblings, Joseph (Kathy), James, William (Elisabeth), David, Mary Sue and Maurice, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Friends will be received 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at Farley Estes Dowdle Funeral Cremation Preneed Care, where the Rosary will be recited at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Rev. Christopher Ankley at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, October 15, 2025. A committal service at Fort Custer National Cemetery will follow at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Memorial contributions made to “Beatrice’s Gift” via the Joseph Bauman Fund at Battle Creek Community Foundation, 32 W. Michigan Ave. Suite #1, Battle Creek, MI 49017.  Personal messages for the family may be placed here at www.farleyestesdowdle.com.