Kathryn Sullivan Kauffman

Kathryn Amanda Sullivan Kauffman, age 41 passed away October 22, 2022 at her home. Born and raised in Birmingham, Katie was the oldest of four siblings. She was a 1999 graduate of Hoover High, a 2003 alumna of Birmingham Southern College with a BFA in Studio Art and Art History. In 2009 Katie earned her MA in Art History from UAB.

Her career path started in 2007 at the Birmingham Museum of Art during the Pompeii exhibit. The next year she taught Art History at Birmingham-Southern College. Katie’s unique teaching style allowed her to connect with students personally by telling them the artist’s back-story, not in the textbooks, which might include racy, comedic and tragic details about artist’s personal life’s and made analogies to current events. She turned students on to art to say the least, a handful told her they chose art as a career path only because of her classes. Katie’s continued her compelling teaching style as Instructor of Art at Samford University in 2011-2016 with courses: Ancient to Medieval; Renaissance to Mid-19th century; and Realism to Contemporary. In addition, and through a partnership between the Warner Foundation and Samford, she added to her full teaching load as Foundation Manager for the Warner Foundation’s art collection. There her duties included commuting to Whispering Cliffs in Tuscaloosa, home of the foundation’s collection of American art, where she Interviewed Jack Warner for archive proposals, facilitated outgoing art loans, digitized the collection and wrote and arranged educational programming. In 2016, she returned to Birmingham Southern College to become Director of Exploration Term and Contract Learning until she retired in 2021 due to her illness.

Katie was a free spirit with many varied interests. She was quick witted, loved to read and research. She was kind and wanted people to look past their differences and get along. She was intelligent with a quirky and fun-loving sense of humor. Katie was very creative, and her love of art had no limits. She loved perfume, had over 200 bottles, knew everything about how they were made and what scents were in them. Katie was a dog lover and Wolfey was her favorite. She brought Wolfey home when she saw her roaming the streets downtown on the way home from work. She was a wonderful daughter, sister, niece, cousin, friend but most of all loved being Joel’s wife and mother of Asher and Sheppy.

Katie is survived by her husband Joel, sons Asher(12) and Shepard(Sheppy 5), her mother Rosalind Sullivan, siblings Anna Price, Sarah Johnson(Jay) and Will Sullivan IV. Also her mother-in-law Jane Bazemore and Robert Bazemore, nephews Griffin and Liam Price, Nick and Bo Johnson and Kate Johnson. She is also survived by an extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins and countless friends. Katie was predeceased by her father, William Sullivan III, grandparents Jenny and Ross Thompson and Dorothy and William Sullivan, Jr.

A visitation for Kathryn will be held Friday, October 28, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Johns-Ridout's Mortuary-Elmwood Chapel, 800 Dennison Ave Sw, Birmingham, AL 35211, followed by a Celebration of Life Service from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Burial will follow at Elmwood Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to headforthecure.org.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.johnsridoutselmwoodchapel.com for the Kauffman family.