Mary Katherine Ballard Gardner, 97, Blairsville, died Feb. 27, 2008. She was born Oct. 21, 1910 in Fulton County. She became a housewife at an early age. She was preceded in death by her husband, Oscar W. Gardner, and her oldest son, Edward, who was killed in 1952. She was the granddaughter of a Baptist minister and the daughter of a deacon, all from the Orchard Knob Baptist Church in south Atlanta. She was a member of Fayetteville First Baptist Church when she lived in Fayetteville with a daughter, Carolyn Brand Jackson. She and her husband traveled around the world and served two years as lay missionaries in Japan. She wrote and published her autobiography, "Love Always Finds A Way" in 1997. Services were at the Carl J. Mowell chapel with the Rev. Jimmy Patterson and the Rev. J. W. Hutchins officiating. Interment was at Greenwood Cemetery, Atlanta. Survivors include her children, Mary Deloris Kilpatrick, Florida, Carolyn Brand Jackson, Georgia and Florida, Oscar W. Gardner Jr., Hampton, Flora Love Hernden, Blairsville, who had been a missionary in Japan for over 30 years with her late husband, Max Love, Leroy W. Gardner, McDonough, Charles C. Gardner, Newnan, Rebecca G. Collins, Blairsville, and Don L. Gardner, Tiger, Ga.; and brother, A. Brooke Ballad, Fayetteville. Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home, Fayetteville, was in charge.