Frances Baccus, 93, of Eddyville formerly of Between the Rivers in Lyon County, went home to her Lord on Monday, April 29, 2019, following several weeks of battling cancer. She passed away peacefully at her home with her loving family at her bedside.
She was a charter member of Eddyville United Methodist Church and attended Saratoga United Methodist Church. She graduated from Eddyville High School, and in August 1962, she and her husband, Charles L. Baccus, started the Lakeside Ledger and later acquired the Lyon County Herald merging the two newspapers, which they operated for 30 years.
She enjoyed working with the Twin Cities Lions Club, now the Lyon County Lyons Club. She was the first Kentucky woman admitted to the Lions Club International, the first woman to receive the Lions Club Medal of Merit in 1982 and the club’s Distinguished Service Award in 1985. And she was the first person to greet patrons as they arrived for the Lyons Club’s country ham semi-annual breakfasts, fundraisers that provide scholarships for deserving Lyon County High School seniors.
She was also a leader in the Eddyville Business and Professional Association and helped start Eddyville’s annual Founder’s Day in 1963. In 1979, she was the first woman chosen as Eddyville’s Citizen of the Year.
She was active in politics, and in 1984, Gov. Martha Layne Collins named her to the Kentucky Institute on Aging. She served on the Institute for 24 years and chaired it for eight years. She and a friend started the Senior Citizens Advisory Board in Lyon County, and she served on the Pennyrile Area Agency on Aging, the Kentucky Task Force for Older Kentuckians, and with a friend, she started the Empty Stocking Fund to provide Christmas gifts for needy children, which she continued throughout her life.
For her service, she received numerous citations and awards the last of which was bestowed on her two weeks ago by the Lake Barkley Chamber of Commerce for community service.
She is survived by two daughters and their spouses, Connie Dirks and husband, Thomas, of Greenwood, Indiana, and Sharon Burton and husband, Bill, of Eddyville, Kentucky; two grandchildren, Stewart Burton and wife, Kelley, and Nicholas Burton and wife, Christin; five grandchildren, Liam, Megan, Charlie, Luke and John Burton, and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles L. Baccus; her parents, William Arthur Murray and Verdia Belle Stewart Murray; four sisters, Ann Scillian, Alice Aldridge, Rossie Glass and Magdalene Cothran; and two brothers, Leonard Murray and Ira Murray.
Visitation will be Friday, May 3, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Lakeland Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Eddyville. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 4, at the funeral home with the Rev. Steve McVay officiating. Burial will follow in Rolling Hills Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to: Lyons Club, c/o Sharon Burton, 450 Lake Scene Dr., Eddyville, KY 42038 or Empty Stocking Fund, c/o Sharon Burton, 450 Lake Scene D., Eddyville, KY 42038.
You may light a candle or leave a message for the family at: www.lakelandchapel.com.