Kate Barnes

Kate! For many, it was as much an exclamation as a name.

Kate Elizabeth Barnes was born April 7, 1984, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and when her parents brought her home, the daffodils were blooming through the snow. Springtime can be generous in Idaho, a place Kate grew to know and love. She was bright, beautiful, quirky and hard to forget. Kate attended Idaho Falls High School, graduating from the New School for the Arts after moving to Phoenix. True to form, she chose to attend college in Hawaii, studying communications, making more friends and swimming with sea turtles.

Kate died suddenly on Sept. 14 at her home in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was 40 years old.

She made a life in Tennessee among a new range of mountains that were a consistent backdrop in her life. She was loved there. Her adventures included painting churches in Haiti, riding a Harley, firing an AR-15, fishing in the Salmon River, exploring abandoned buildings, petting all the dogs and cats she encountered and making a deep impression on the people around her.

While Kate faced more than her share of challenges, she is still known to a long list of people as someone they turned to when they most needed a friend. She’ll be missed. By a lot of people in a lot of places.

Kate is preceded in death by her mother, Salle Barnes. She is survived by her partner, Mark Cianciosa; her father, Bruce (Ann) Barnes; her brother, Peter Barnes (Stephanie Milner Barnes), her nieces Grace and Helen Barnes and friends around the country.

Her family will scatter her ashes in the Salmon River in Stanley, Idaho, one of Kate’s most cherished places and where her mother was laid to rest. Her favorite charity was the ALS Association, if anyone would like to donate in her name.

Aloha Kate. You were like no one else.