Maureen Baggatta Tull

Maureen Baggatta Tull of Asheville, NC, passed away peacefully in her home on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at the age of 82, following a brief battle with cancer.
     Maureen was born to John P. and Anne M. Robinson Hegarty in the summer of 1940, in her beloved Brooklyn, NY, a place that would be part of her story and identity until the day she passed. Despite living in NC for over 40 years, she never lost her accent.

Maureen wanted very little for herself, choosing always to give to others instead, a habit she would devote more and more of herself to as her life went on. She gave to those she knew and loved, and those whom she would never meet. She didn't care where you were from, only that she could help. She especially loved helping children, providing them with special kindnesses too easily overlooked. She provided thousands of comforting dolls and other stuffed animals to children in frightening, war-torn lands. She gave her time and support to countless summer camps for children, including children of loss. She provided sanitary products for young girls who couldn't just visit the local drugstore. She never met a helping organization she didn't make room for in her heart. Her help was never showy. When she helped, it was personal, heartfelt, and healing in nature.

Maureen found love not once, but twice in life. In her first marriage, she had three children, bravely relocated her young family from NY to a strange new place called North Carolina, grew and managed three successful businesses from the ground up, and spent 33 happy years with her husband, until cancer took him. But even in tragedy, Maureen found hope, discovering the services of Hospice, a cause she would devote the next phase of her life to supporting. She spent hundreds of hours with the sick and dying, and working in the office to ensure every end-of-life journey would be filled with dignity, companionship, and comfort. But it was her own grief from losing a husband that led to her second love. In grief counseling for surviving spouses, she met a widower who would become her loving husband for another 25 years. Together, they devoted their retirement years to an ever-growing extended family, and supporting their local community of Lincolnton, NC so that future generations would have every opportunity for happiness.

Maureen loved her family, her children, her brothers, her nieces and nephews, and of course, her grandchildren. All knew her as a kind person who loved to sit back and enjoy a family gathering with a big smile on her face.

Maureen will be dearly missed. Her comforting presence lives on in the hearts of those who loved her.

Maureen was preceded in death by her first husband, James George Baggatta in 1994; her second husband, Robert Eugene Tull in 2017; and her brother, John E. Hegarty.

She is survived by her sons, James Baggatta, Sr. of Winston-Salem, and Patrick Baggatta and wife, Amy, of California; daughter, Suzanne Killian and husband Andrew of Arden; brother, Timothy Hegarty and wife Jennifer of Fort Mill, SC; grandchildren, Jacqueline Kirkman, James J. Baggatta, Jr., Collin and Chase Killian; and her many loving nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Service will be held Friday, January 20, 2023 in the Pulliam Chapel of Givens Estates, 100 Wesley Drive, Asheville, NC. The family will begin receiving friends at 10 am and a service will follow at 11 am. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the American Cancer Society in Maureen’s memory at https://donate3.cancer.org/.

For those who desire, condolences may be offered to the family under Mrs. Tull’s obituary at www.WestFamilyFuneralServices.com.