Harriet Baskerville

Funeral service for Harriet Mae Baskerville, 80, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 26, 2009, at Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church.  Burial will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence. 

Mrs. Baskerville died on June 22, 2009, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

She was born on July 26, 1928, in Kansas City, MO, the daughter of George Lesley and Harriet Alberta (Wallace) Brown.  She lived in Lawrence most of her life.

She attended Lawrence Public Schools.  She was a homemaker.  She worked for Delta Gamma, and she was in charge of the before and after school daycare center at St. John’s School during the early 1990s.  Mrs. Baskerville worked in the food service operation at Lawrence High School and she worked in private homes.  She retired in 1993. 

Mrs. Baskerville was a member of Siloam Chapter #10 Eastern Star, Heroines of Jericho.  She was also a member of Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church.  She became known as the “Banana Lady” by delivering bananas to Colonial Manor Nursing Home for many years.

She married Gratheu Hamm.  They later divorced.  She later married Marian O. Baskerville on June 4, 1985, in Kansas City, KS.  He preceded her in death on June 9, 1999.

Survivors include a son, Larry Hamm, Lawrence; three daughters, Karen Tyler, Columbus, OH, Alicia Reynolds, Lawrence; and Catherine White, Lawrence, a sister, Laura Evelyn Gilyard, Denver, CO; 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by a son, Michael, and a brother, George Lesley Brown, Jr.

Mrs. Baskerville will lie in state from 9 to 9 Thursday, June 25, 2009, at Warren-McElwain Mortuary.

Memorials may be made in her name to Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church and sent in care of the mortuary.

Online condolences may be sent to www.warrenmcelwain.com; Subject:  Baskerville.