Barbara Joan Hazen

Barbara Hazen passed away peacefully on Thursday, the 13th of June 2019, in Jupiter, Florida at the age of 82. Born on the 14th of February 1937, in Cumberland, Kentucky to Chester and Wanda Morris, she grew up in the beautiful mountains of Eastern Kentucky with her sister Donna and brother Gary.

As a youngster, Barbara loved the outdoors and spent most of her childhood playing and hiking in the mountains surrounding her home. She loved animals as well, and her constant companion on those many adventures was her loveable mutt, “Gizmo”.

Barbara was a caring, compassionate and incredibly empathetic person. If you were ill or injured, there was no one in the world better to bandage you up or nurse you back to health. After graduating from Cumberland High School, Barbara left home with her best friend Anna Lee to attend East Tennessee Baptist College, where she graduated in 1958 with a degree in nursing and became a registered nurse.

After returning to Eastern Kentucky, Barbara began her nursing career at the Appalachian Regional Hospital in Whitesburg, Kentucky. It was a few months later that she met her future husband Nick, to whom she was married on the 23rd of July 1959. Barbara and Nick began their life together in Neon, Kentucky, where Nick ran the family’s department store and Barbara tended to pregnant mothers, newborn babies and the ill and injured. They began their family as well, having two sons, Charles Nicholas and Phillip Eric, in May of 1960 and March of 1963.

After a short stint in Huntsville, Alabama, Barbara and the family moved to Lexington, Kentucky in 1968 where Nick went into the restaurant business and Barbara immersed herself into raising and caring for her family. During this period, Barbara gave birth to their third son, Anthony Neil, in January of 1975.

In 1998, Barbara and Nick retired and moved to Houston to be near their three sons and their growing families. It was there that the restaurant bug bit Nick again and he and Barbara opened and operated Café Nicholas in the Houston Galleria until 2002 when they retired fully.

Barbara had three passions: Reading; animals; and her family. She was a voracious reader and always had a book in her hand when she was not cooking, cleaning, working at the restaurant or caring for one of her children or grandchildren. Her pets were family and Barbara had a special connection to them that earned her the nickname “Doctor Doolittle”. However, it was her family that held the most special place in her life and she dedicated herself to caring for her children and grandchildren as if there was nothing else in the world, whether it was driving carpool in Houston traffic or on the floor playing Beanie Babies or Power Rangers.

Mrs. Hazen is survived by her three sons and daughters in law, six grandchildren and brother and sister.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from ten o’clock until eleven o’clock in the morning on Tuesday, the 18th of June, in the parlor of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The prayer service will immediately follow the visitation, also in the parlor of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons.

The interment service will follow, via an escorted cortege, at Woodlawn Garden of Memories Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions may be directed toward Houston SPCA (www.houstonspca.org) or the charity of one’s choice.