Dawn Ellen Ketelhut Homard, loving and generous mother, sister, grandmother, aunt and friend, died suddenly on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at her home in Dover, AR. She was 69.

Dawn had many loves in her life, but none matched her love for her son, Brian Homard, whom she raised from an early age, and mostly alone; and her grandchildren, Asher and Ava. Although much of her life was in New Orleans, where she grew up, Brian was born and raised in Arkansas, and so for his sake, that's where Dawn made her home.

Family was paramount for Dawn, and she traveled wherever she needed to be to celebrate holidays, birthdays and anniversaries with her son, her grandkids, her siblings, and her nieces and nephews.

But she had other passions as well. She loved the Arkansas Razorbacks, the LSU Tigers, and the New Orleans Saints, the team she watched growing up in her hometown. She adored the French Quarter and jazz brunches, power naps and crab cakes, trashy novels and taco salad, Keith Urban and Christmas cocktails.

And Diet Coke. Oh, how she loved Diet Coke. If you found Dawn, you almost always found her with her huge plastic jug of Diet Coke in her hand.

In the last two decades of her life, Dawn discovered her central passion in an unexpected place. It came in the form of giving love to dogs who too often had nobody else to love them. Although she built a career as a medical transcriptionist, for most of the past 15 years it was in the work that she did at NovaStar Rescue in Dover that Dawn finally found a place to give freely all of the love she needed to put into the world.

Alongside her longtime friend and business partner and founder of Novastar Rescue, Terre Wood, Dawn discovered her passion in helping to find homes for the animals who passed through the rescue and landed in her care, as well as caring for the center's permanent residents.

"She really found her passion when she met Terre and got involved at NovaStar," said Dawn's sister, Paula Ketelhut O'Byrne. "After family, that was her purpose in life. It was in that life that she touched the lives of so many, both animals and humans."

Terre Wood considered Dawn a sister as well as a friend and a partner. "She loved the HOGS almost as much as I do," Wood recalled. "But she was a Louisiana girl at heart. When Arkansas played LSU it could get a little heated around here."

Wood said she and her co-workers were struggling terribly in dealing with the loss of Dawn, but they weren't the only ones.

"She loved my dogs and they loved her," Wood said. "My little dog Jilly Bean was Dawn's baby, her shadow, always with her whether she was working or sleeping.  Jilly was right there.  She is missing Dawn, as they all are."

Her brother Bill Ketelhut remembers his big sister's kindness when he was just a kid.

"She was very kind to me when I was just a young, bratty kid," recalled Ketelhut. "So it didn't surprise me when she spent the last decades of her life doing selfless and often thankless work taking care of vulnerable dogs who needed care. It was who she was."

Given the responsibility she had early as a single parent, Dawn was a tireless worker. She would care for the dogs by day, and perform her medical transcriptions at night. "I never knew anyone who worked harder," her sister Gay Ketelhut Hanby said. "She would work through the weekends, sometimes with one eye on LSU or the Saints."

Her nocturnal habits made Dawn a particularly good confidante. Her sister-in-law Elena Ketelhut remembers texting Dawn often in the middle of the night when she was feeling unsettled. "What are you doing up?" Dawn would respond, then proceed to listen, offer advice, or just be present. "I knew she would always be there when something was happening in my life," Elena remembered. "I will miss her dearly. But I'll carry the memories forever."

If working at NovaStar was Dawn's passion, spending time with her extended family was her joy. Above all, she looked forward to visits to her grandson Asher and her granddaughter Ava, along with their mother Rachel and dad Brian, at their home in Kansas City, Mo.

"She loved getting to celebrate birthdays with the kids," recalled Rachel Homard, Dawn's daughter-in-law. "She loved a good home-cooked meal. She just loved everything about being here. She was so proud of her family."

Before Christmas every year, Dawn would head to New Orleans, where the family gathered every holiday. It was truly her happy place.

"Above all, she adored her family," said Gay Hanby, Dawn's older sister. "She was happiest when she was in the midst of a whole house full of her siblings and in-laws, nieces, nephews, children, and grandchildren. She thrived in the chaos."

Born Dawn Ellen Nixon on April 28, 1955 in Pontiac, Michigan, she was later adopted along with her two sisters by William Ketelhut, who married her mother three years after her biological father William Nixon died tragically when she was very young. Dawn grew up in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, and attended Riverdale High School in Metairie. She enrolled at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), receiving a medical records degree. After marrying, she moved to Arkansas with her husband, and welcomed a son into their life, but too soon she would find herself alone with Brian, determined to do everything in her power to build a life for the two of them.

"She sacrificed so much for me, made sure I was safe, surrounded us with a support system," said Brian, a sales executive in Kansas City, Mo., and father to Dawn's two grandchildren. "I'll never forget the last words I said to her: 'I'm proud of you. I love you. See you soon.' "

Dawn Ellen Ketelhut Homard is survived by her son Brian and her daughter-in-law Rachel Homard; her grandchildren Asher Homard and Ava Homard; two sisters, Gay Ketelhut Hanby (brother-in-law David Hanby) of New Orleans, and Paula Ketelhut O'Byrne (brother-in-law James O'Byrne) of Burgundy, France; one brother, William Ketelhut (sister-in-law Elena Ketelhut) of Sunset Beach, North Carolina; niece Courtney Hanby Schaneville (Kenny Schaneville); nephews Jeffrey Hanby (Erin Hanby), Tommy Ketelhut and Billy Ketelhut; grandniece Kate Hanby; grandnephews Riley Schaneville, Rory Schaneville amd Luke Hanby; Aunt Nina Wiltse and cousins Elaine and Robb Wiltse; her longtime friend and business partner Terre Wood; and dear friends near and far.

Services in New Orleans will be private. A memorial service will be planned in the Dover area for October 4th, 2024.

The family urges anyone who wishes to honor Dawn's memory to donate generously to NovaStar Rescue:

By mail to NovaStar Rescue, 14682 Hwy. 333 Dover, AR 72837

Online: PayPal @NovaStarRescue — verify with 7311

Cash app:  $novastarrescue

Venmo: @NovaStarRescue

All donations are tax-deductible: NovaStar is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, funded by adoption fees and donations.