In Memory: Darlene "Dar" Baugus, Lost Battle With Leukemia

Editor's note: the following obituary was submitted by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.

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Dar Baugus, daughter of John and Marie Pokornowski (both deceased) of Lester Prairie, Minnesota, and wife of John Baugus of Roswell, Georgia, passed away on June 4, 2016 from the effects of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. 

She was a graduate of the St Mary’s School of Nursing (affiliated with the Mayo Clinic) in Rochester, MN, received her Bachelor’s degree from the College of St. Francis in Joliet, IL, and her Masters from Georgia State University in Atlanta. 

She continued working in and around the medical profession for the rest of her life, fitting it around her demands as a wife and mother. At various times she worked in doctors’ offices, worked at the Georgia Rehabilitation Center, established and managed the clinic for the Marist School in Atlanta, served as a paramedic instructor in the Dekalb County EMS, managed the Education Department at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in Atlanta, and finished her working career as a Medical Case Manager. 

In retirement while living in Big Canoe, she established a pharmacy operation and a Prescription Drug Assistance Program for a free clinic serving the medically indigent residents of Pickens County and was actively involved in the supervision of both for a number of years before and after moving to Roswell. After making her last move to the St. George Village continuing care retirement community in Roswell, she established and ran a cost-free brand name medication assistance program as a ministry of the St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church serving the medically indigent in the Roswell/Alpharetta area.

For 20 years she battled two separate diseases in a family of diseases known as Myelo Proliferative Neuroplasms (MPN’s) before her second disease transformed to Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Over the years she continued to out-live medical expectations of her life duration. She lived and died as a true Christian, looking forward to the rewards of heaven.

In lieu of flowers, please donate in her memory to the MPN Research Foundation at www.mpnresearchfoundation.org. or donate a gift of blood or platelets in her memory to the Atlanta Blood Services by emailing nherring@bmtga.com.

She is survived by her husband John, their children John Jr, Kathryn Baugus Kopp, and Jim, four grandchildren Brittany, Travis, Ollie, and Bennett Baugus, and brother Richard Pokornowski of Vancouver, WA.

A funeral mass will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 10, 2016, at the St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church in Roswell.

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