Barbara Harris Heath

MAYFIELD - Barbara Harris Heath of Mayfield passed Sunday morning, Sept. 21, 2025, at her home following a brief battle with cancer. She was a sweetheart, born in Paducah on Valentine's Day, 1929.

Barbara loved people, plants, and everything artistic. She enjoyed meeting people and struck up conversations with strangers wherever she went, collecting and re-telling their interesting and sometimes exotic personal stories. She was a passionate gardener. Her love of flowers and everything green was inherited from her parents and was passed down to her own daughter and any young acquaintance she could influence. She was a charter member of the Laurel Oak Garden Club of Mayfield. She won numerous "Best of Show" awards in the region for her floral arrangements and showcased the garden at her home for charity events on several occasions. A garden was planted in her honor several years ago at the Garden Club of Kentucky's headquarters, the Wallis House, in Paris, Kentucky. Barbara adored Art and the people that make it. She was an enthusiastic amateur painter and was a Board member at the Mayfield/Graves County Art Guild for over 20 years. Attending symphonies at Paducah's Carson Center with her dear friend Elaine Simmons gave her immense delight in her later years. She also loved to travel and visited many places throughout North America and Europe. She was affectionately known as "Granny Bee" to most of the younger people who knew her and to her "adopted" grandson Kohl Norville and his children Lena and Heath.

She was preceded in death by her devoted husband, Roger C. Heath, to whom she was married 56 years and with whom she shared ownership of R. C. Heath Oil Company in Mayfield, and by her parents, Ira and Pearl Harris of West Paducah, her brothers, Melvin, George and Wayne Harris, and by her sister, Francis Fox.

She is survived by her daughter, Dana Heath-Watson (Ric Watson) of Mayfield, numerous adored nieces and nephews and their families, her dearest friend Monie Zarensky of Hartford, Connecticut, and a large community of close friends in the Garden Club and the Art Guild.

Mrs. Heath chose to be cremated. Her family will mourn her loss privately. A memorial and celebration of life will be planned in the coming weeks; the time and location to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you please consider a donation to Sunrise Children's Services, P. O. Box 36570, Louisville, KY 40233-9909.

Byrn Funeral Home in Mayfield, KY, is in charge of arrangements.