By Yvonne Zusel
yzusel@ajc.com
Patsy Odum didn’t realize she was looking for a manager for her gift shop in 1999. And then Kristen Huckeba walked in.
“I immediately knew I liked her,” said Mrs. Odum, owner of Parsons Gifts in Duluth. “She had such an outgoing, likable personality.”
When Mrs. Huckeba left Parsons 10 years later – only after illness made it difficult for her to work – she counted many of the store’s customers as her friends.
“She was perfect for retail,” Mrs. Odum said. “She had a photographic memory, and she remembered the small stuff,” like names of spouses and children, or if a parent was ill. “People loved that.”
Kristen Barrett Huckeba of Lawrenceville died in her home on Aug. 31 after a long battle with colon cancer. She was 46.
Her remains have been cremated and a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Meadow Baptist Church in Lawrenceville. The family will receive friends from 1 to 2 p.m. at the church. Arrangements were made by Bill Head Funeral Homes and Crematory in Duluth.
Karena Barker, one of the Parsons customers who befriended Mrs. Huckeba, said the two shared a connection that didn’t require a lot of upkeep.
“If she loved you, you knew it,” Ms. Barker said. “We didn’t have to talk every day --we had an unspoken friendship connection.”
Her husband John said her gift for making everyone feel special was part of what attracted him to her years after she rebuffed his proclamations of love in 1981, when they were students at Berkmar High School in Lilburn. They reconnected in 2008, and he proposed later that year during a Foreigner concert – "Waiting For a Girl Like You" was their song. They married in 2009.
“She loved taking care of her family,” Mr. Huckeba said, a unit that also included her daughter, Paige, and his son, Jacob. “She was just that Southern belle who loved taking care of her house and other people. “
Mrs. Huckeba had a particularly close relationship with Paige.
“They were best buds,” Mr. Huckeba said. “She was so proud of her.”
Mrs. Huckeba also connected with her family through her lifelong love of all things Disney. As a child, she started a near yearly tradition of visiting Disney World with her parents and younger brother, Clinton Barrett.
“We never had a bad time,” Mr. Barrett said. “As soon as she walked through the gates, she was six years old again.”
As the two grew older, they bonded by quoting movies and television shows. Even when she got sick, he said, she was thinking of others – she’d be worried about his back while he was visiting her in the hospital, and she never allowed friends to dwell on her illness.
“She fought such a good fight,” Ms. Barker said. “She was most worried about leaving John and Paige. Her biggest worry was that she didn’t want to leave and have everybody be sad.”
Other survivors include parents Edward and Myrtle Chadwick Barrett of Buford, sister-in-law Amy Barrett of Buford and niece Marissa Barrett of Flowery Branch.
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