Katie Dunn, helped lead anti-drug crusade, dies at 73

KATIE DUNN was one of a stalwart band of women who dared to defy the drug dealers on their own turf.

Working with men like C.B. Kimmins and the late Herman Wrice, these women went eyeball-to-eyeball with the dealers, disrupting their street-corner sales and daring them to do something about it.

They stood in summer heat and winter cold, braving rain, snow and wind, as well as threats of violence by the peddlers of the poison the women despised.

Usually, the dealers slunk away when faced with these female crusaders, some of them elderly, armed with nothing more than their resolve.

"She stood on frozen sidewalks, stood in tremendous heat, downpours, all-nighters, without expense money, or any compensation, to make the city safer for our children and their families," said Kimmins, who has been fighting the drug scourge in the city for many years and was a founder of Mantua Against Drugs.

Katie Dunn, a longtime teachers' aide who dedicated her life to helping those who needed her love and compassion, an Air Force veteran and devoted churchwoman, died Nov. 8. She was 73 and lived in the West Powelton section of West Philadelphia.

"Katie Dunn cared and loved helping those less fortunate to survive in a world of violence and drugs," Kimmins said.

"Katie did more for this city than many officials who never quite get it, about having a passion to change our world while offering one's life in return."

She was raised in Independence, La., got her early education there and studied at Southern University, in Louisiana. She spent six years in the Air Force, serving in England and elsewhere in Europe and emerging as a sergeant. She came to Philadelphia in 1964.

She became a classroom assistant with kindergarten pupils at the Samuel Powell Elementary School in Powelton. She retired in 2001. Katie became aware of the drug problem when she found a crack house on her block. She led a campaign to shut it down.

"I became a one-woman crusader," she told Daily News reporter Leon Taylor in 1999. "It took five years, but it was closed down and it's still closed.

"It takes a lot of guts, but I wasn't about to let somebody make me a prisoner in my own home. They were destroying the neighborhood."

In 1986, she joined Kimmins and Wrice as a drug fighter. She traveled to other cities "to help others overwhelmed by guns and drugs," she said.

Katie was an active member of Christ Community Baptist Church and ran its homeless shelter for six years. "Her outstanding leadership helped so many abused women who had nowhere to turn," Kimmins said. She handed out food and clothing to the homeless twice a week for many years.

"She was truly a role model for the ages," Kimmins said. "She collected clothing, books, food, technology devices, shoes and small amounts of money, along with toys for Christmas, all to be given to families mired in poverty.

"They don't make them any better than this great lady."

She is survived by two sons, James Ragsdale and Michael Dunn; three grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Services: Were Nov. 16.