Sonja Kay Blair-Adams

Sonja Kay Blair – Adams, of Eolia, KY, was born April 24, 1948 to James Edwin and Geraldine Caudill Blair. She died in May of 1969 at the age of 21. Her body was found June 2, 1969. She was given a funeral and buried unidentified on June 5, 1969 by the direction of Joe Mahan of Colonial Chapel. Pallbearers were the Harlan County Rescue Squad. Sonja was exhumed in November 2015 and positively identified in September 2016.

Sonja Kay Blair Adams was known as Mountain Jane Doe for more than four decades until 2016 when the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System matched her DNA with her daughter, Karen. Sonja’s case is an example of how important and needed this database is for matching the missing and unidentified with their families.

Sonja is survived by her daughter, Karen Stipes and husband, Jimmy Stipes, granddaughter Jenny Kirkpatrick and husband, Kevin, grandson, Stephen Ivy, and great grandchildren, Kiara and Rylee Kirkpatrick. Also surviving are siblings, nieces, nephews, and a host of family and friends.

Funeral will be Saturday, July 29 at 5pm in the chapel of Mount Pleasant Funeral Home with Randy Cole officiating. A public visitation will be from 4pm to 5pm at Mount Pleasant. A Memorial Concert will be held at the Harlan County Courthouse Gazebo at 7pm. Performers will be Ruby Friedman and the Cumberland River Band.

Visitation, Funeral, and Concert are open to the public in gratitude to the people of Harlan County, KY who cared for Sonja’s first gravesite through the years and to those who continued to keep her memory alive.