Overbrook ? Just about everyone who lives in this area knew Coleen Babbitt.

When the Santa Fe Trail High School football team made it to bi-district this year, Babbitt had a cookout for the boys, her senior son, Ryan, among them.

Any man in the area who had ever been in trouble with his wife and wanted to patch things over probably had visited Babbitt at the downtown flower shop where she sometimes worked.

The 42-year-old mother of four had been active on the high school’s after-prom committee for several years, helping prepare fun-filled parties for her children and others.

So Babbitt’s sudden death on Tuesday hit hard in this small community.

“It’s a tremendous tragedy that somebody so good has been taken from us,” said John Deitrich, assistant football and basketball coach, head softball coach and physical education teacher at the high school. “You could just tell she had a genuine caring for the kids in the community as well as other people in the community.”

Babbitt had spent most of her life in the area, attending Overbrook schools before going to Emporia State University. She lived with her husband, Alan, and their four children on a farm southeast of Overbrook. She had taught swimming classes and coached girls’ volleyball and softball teams for several years.

Bryan Averill, a Santa Fe Trails senior who played on the football team, said Babbitt had been a tireless supporter of youth sports.

“She was a really big helper when it came to sports and throwing parties and celebrating,” he said. “She was just a big supporter.”

Deitrich recalled that Babbitt had always fed the football players before games, “probably no small task, as many hungry boys as we have coming out there.”

She also sent care packages for her sophomore daughter, Brenna, and the rest of the girls on the softball team, Deitrich said.

“You couldn’t ever go to a ball game where she wasn’t in the crowd or didn’t want to be there,” he said. “And she always found time if somebody asked her for something.”

Judy Miles, who had known Babbitt her whole life and worked with her on the after-prom committee, said hardly a day went by when you didn’t see Babbitt running around town in her white van.

“She always had a smile on her face,” Miles said. “You don’t know how much you’re going to miss them until they’re gone.”