In Memoriam Susan Baughman

Barely 5 feet tall and 100 pounds soaking wet, Susan McKeand Baughman was small in stature, but she was larger than life. She always moved quickly and with purpose. Her sense of fair play, commitment to confidentiality, big heart, and loving spirit for her fellow human beings endeared her to all who knew her. When Susan passed away on Dec. 18, 2021, she left a void felt sorely by those who knew and loved her. A graduate of Harpeth Hall’s Class of 1956, Mrs. Baughman’s Harpeth Hall roots extend back to Ward-Belmont where her mother, Susie Hughes McKeand, was a member of the Class of 1932. Her sister, Peggy Ann McKeand Frank, and sister-in-law, Missy Herbert McKeand, graduated from Harpeth Hall in 1959 and 1958 respectively, and her daughter, Ann Baughman Walsh graduated in 1991. As a student, Susan was a varsity athlete in field hockey and table tennis, a representative on the Lady of Hall court, and an officer or president of almost everything, including Student Council, science club, French club, Junior Classical League, and Eccowasin. Not surprisingly, she also served as sergeant-at-arms for the Honor Council and other student organizations. Eternally grateful for the experiences and opportunities which her education afforded her, Mrs. Baughman was fiercely loyal to Harpeth Hall, serving as reunion class chair multiple times and on the Distinguished Alumna Selection Committee. In 1997, she was awarded the Dede Bullard Wallace Award, the most prestigious award given to a Harpeth Hall alumna. Harpeth Hall established the award in 1969 to honor individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to our school and to our community, just as Dede Bullard Wallace, class of 1953, did during her lifetime. Mrs. Baughman was also a member of the Founders Society. For many Harpeth Hall alumnae, Mrs. Baughman is best remembered as an instantly likable faculty member and well-respected administrator. After raising her children and working extensively as a volunteer, Mrs. Baughman began a late-in-life career and returned to her alma mater, first as a college counselor and then as director of the Upper School. Her tenure spanned more than a decade from 1985 to 1997. In honor of her

“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”

— SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

impact, each year Harpeth Hall presents the Susan McKeand Baughman Award to a graduating Harpeth Hall senior who demonstrates the same impeccable personal integrity and selfless devotion to Harpeth Hall that Mrs. Baughman embodied. “People like Mrs. Baughman have given Harpeth Hall its reputation — her contribution is immeasurable,” Lindsay Voigt ’99 wrote on the dedication page of the Milestones yearbook in 1997, Susan’s last year at the school. On the same page, faculty member Legare Vest wrote, “She’s the woman, the heart of the school.” Leading by example, Mrs. Baughman encouraged the highest personal standards in others and provided a daily reminder of how to live life with compassion and honor. During her retirement, Mrs. Baughman enjoyed spending time with her friends and her family, traveling, reading, being involved with Westminster Presbyterian Church, volunteering in politics, and generally staying busy helping anyone she could. Former Harpeth Hall Director of Admissions Hilrie Brown said, “Susan could be the hostess with the mostess at dinner parties and would be the first on the scene with a casserole when a friend needed comfort.” Mrs. Baughman found immense joy and lifelong friends during her career at Harpeth Hall. Predating the famed “male posse” was the “Souby Sisters.” Mrs. Baughman was an integral part of this group of former faculty members who worked in Souby Hall and have maintained their friendships for more than 20 years. They include: Dot Akin, Betty Jane Guffee Barringer ‘59, Hilrie Brown, Anne King, Margie Fish Martin ’67, Donna Montague, Dianne Buttrey Wild ’66, and the late Emily Fuller, late Polly Nichols, and late Nan Reed. In 2018, some of the Souby Sisters traveled to Knoxville to celebrate Mrs. Baughman’s 80th birthday. “Heaven gained a prize,” Mrs. Brown said. “Susan, we Souby Sisters love and miss you.”

1997 Yearbook Dedications Honoring Ms. Baughman

Mrs. Baughman believed in her students and ‘never let them sell themselves short’

“Mrs. Baughman does so much for Harpeth Hall, but she’s never too busy to help out a student.”

— KATE CELAURO ’98 “To me, Mrs. Baughman represents the true nature of Harpeth Hall; she is a woman of class, grace, and congeniality who is always happy to greet you with a smile.”

— JESSICA TUCKER ’97

When Madie McKnight Smith ’94 was a student, she knew Mrs. Baughman would promptly issue students a pink slip for chewing gum, leaving books in an undesignated area, or not responding to a library notice. The offense was always warranted. At age 24, Ms. Smith was newly entering the workforce 62 | HARPETH HALL HALLWAYS and found herself working side by side with Mrs. Baughman, now “Susan,” in the college counseling department at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin. “Susan was incredibly dedicated to her work, so good at what she did, and she was an incredible mentor,” Mrs. Smith said. “I learned so much from her. She always treated me as her equal, and she believed in me, at times before I believed in myself. “Susan had amazing people skills and could relate to anyone. She could read a room, calm a room, speak her mind, and always be thoughtful and on point. She always encouraged her students, and she never let them sell themselves short.”