Tammy Lou Haynes, longtime president of Heart of the Westside Neighborhood Association, passed away Jan. 17, after battling cancer. She was 51.
Haynes was involved in The Northwest Project and was a volunteer at The Fairbanks.
Springfield Zone 1 City Councilwoman Phyllis Ferguson said Haynes was very engaged in as president of the neighborhood association.
“She was more than a person who would call the meeting to order and run it,” said Ferguson. “She was a real neighborhood grassroots person.”
Ferguson said Haynes was also personally involved in her neighbors’ lives.
“If they needed a ride to the grocery, she’d load them into her van and haul them over there. She’d make food and take food to people. She just did what she needed to help people get by.”
Haynes is survived by four children, seven grandchildren and a large extended family. She was buried in January in her hometown of Houston, Texas.
A tree will be planted in her memory later this spring at Nichols Park.
Additional information for this article was provided by Jenny Fillmer Edwards, Springfield-Greene County Park Board.