Cathy Green, who with her husband, John, opened children's bookstore Tikes and Tales, Phoenix, Ariz., only this past spring, died Tuesday, October 26.
The Greens founded Creative Colleagues, a graphic design business, in 1985, and Cathy was for many years a preschool teacher. Her lifelong dream was to open a children's bookstore, and the Greens spent two years researching and opening Tikes and Tales. Her diagnosis of cancer was recent.
Melanie Tighe of Dog-Eared Pages Used Books in Phoenix wrote: "Although the loss to her family is devastating, and our hearts go out to them, the loss to our community is too great to ignore. It takes a special person to run a bookstore for children, someone with immense patience and a great love of books. Someone devoted to making a difference in the world, one child at a time. Cathy was such a person. Although you may have never had the pleasure to know her, trust me when I tell you that you and your children will miss her."