South MS leader’s death leaves major void. ‘She brought it all,’ a friend said
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Sock was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and the disease returned in the fall.
- She became the nation’s first Black woman to lead a major casino company.
- She co-founded Pathways2Possibilities for young people and helped expand to other states.
Accolades poured in for Karen Sock after South Mississippians realized they had lost one of the community’s brightest lights on Wednesday.
Sock staved off breast cancer after her diagnosis in 2010, but the disease returned, most recently in the fall. She died at age 73.
“If you needed a boost of confidence, or you needed to hear what was good and meaningful, you called Karen,” said Paige Roberts, Sock’s partner in the multi-state Pathways2Possibilities, a program that allowed young people to interactively explore careers.
“That smile, that laugh, her sense of humor. She just was bigger than life. As cliché as it might sound, there truly is a dark hole with her passing. And yet, we all who loved her and were loved by her will keep shining our light in the name of her legacy. It’s just a dichotomy of heartbreak combined with joy and gratitude.”
Sock managed casinos in a male-dominated industry, chaired boards, mentored countless individuals, received too many awards to mention and inspired thousands of students in Mississippi and beyond. But it was her humor, her indomitable spirit, her positive attitude and her love of people, no matter their station in life, that her friends will always remember.
“Nobody was a stranger,” said her friend the Rev. Alice Graham. “Everybody deserved respect.”
Sock was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but lived in California, Chicago, New Orleans and, finally, on the Coast, where Biloxi was home. She met her husband, structural engineer Frederick Sock, while in Chicago, a Memorial Health System profile said.
They had one child, daughter Kristan Sock. Sock loved her family “fiercely” Graham said.
Sock leads in male-dominated casino industry
Many people knew Sock from her more than 20 years in the casino industry. In 1996, she was hired as general manager of the original Harrah’s Casino in Tunica, and became the nation’s first Black woman to lead a major casino company.
She opened six casinos at various locations and oversaw the comeback of Harrah’s Gulf Coast in Biloxi in 2006, following Hurricane Katrina. She also worked in leadership positions at Grand Biloxi Casino Hotel, Grand Casino Tunica and Harrah’s New Orleans Casino.
The crowning year of her career came in 2012, when she was named general manager and raised a toast with Jimmy Buffett at the opening of Margaritaville Casino Biloxi. The same year, she was honored as one of the 25 people in the casino industry to watch worldwide by Global Gaming Business Magazine.
“Sock has effectively managed hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for casino companies, including Harrah’s (now Caesars) and Grand Casinos,” the article said. “Perhaps as important, she’s made a deep personal investment in the communities where she’s worked, and in the employees she’s shepherded up the ladder.”
Duncan McKenzie, who worked with her as he managed several Coast casinos over the years, said, “She always made it a priority to make the community she lived in a better place.”
Sock led the way for other women to reach the top at Coast casinos, a rarity in the industry. LuAnn Pappas, CEO at Scarlet Pearl Casino in D’Iberville, said Sock helped her through very difficult times. “Karen’s family was so supportive when Karen was with me and should have been with her family,” Pappas said. “Karen and her family became my family.”
Karen Sock mentored others
The Rev. Graham, now retired, had moved to the Coast in 2009 to serve as executive director of the Interfaith Disaster Task Force. The agency had a grant for an executive coach to mentor Graham. Graham called Sock only after failing to reach the other candidate. The minister was uncertain a casino executive would be the right fit.
But they hit it off immediately. Graham, who had been a therapist, always lent an empathetic ear to her employees. Sock had some advice. “You’re their boss,” Sock told Graham. “Your task is to facilitate them to do their work.”
“Her clarity, I so appreciated,” Graham said. “And she did it with kindness. She did it with compassion.” Graham had no family in South Mississippi. Sock took her in, inviting her for meals and holidays. Graham enjoyed watching Fred and Karen Sock together. The Fred and Karen Show, Graham called it.
They liked to pick on one another. Both traveled a lot for work. “They both used to say, ‘If we had to live with one another, this marriage would never have lasted,’ “ Graham joked. “ They supported one another’s independence.
There was another member of the family, the grand dog Simon, Kristan Sock’s pet. Sock used to send Graham messages from Simon. “We went out walking, and we saw some squirrels,” Simon might text. “Grandmom wouldn’t let me run after them.”
Nobody who knew Sock talked about her without mentioning her sense of humor, her smile and her melodious laugh.
Pathways2Possibities launches in South MS
Tabari Daniels particularly loved that laugh. He met Sock years ago at the Almanette Hotel & Bistro in Gulfport.
Sock had a way of matching talent with needs. She recruited Tabari and his brother Mike for Pathways2Possiblities, which she co-founded with Paige Roberts. Pathways sponsors two-day, interactive career expos that debuted for 8th-graders at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Pathways has been so successful that the duo took it to other parts of Mississippi, and even expanded to other states.
“We are going global, baby,” the ever-enthusiastic Sock told Roberts.
Sock knew the Daniels brothers were good at connecting with young people. They welcomed young people to expos and set an energetic tone for the experience.
“It was like Christmas, but for jobs,” Tabari Daniels said. “That’s what it was like. Ms. Karen used to love for us to say that.”
While Daniels showed up for Sock, she was there for him, too. He will never forget receiving a text from her when he was cast in the starring role for Biloxi Little Theatre’s production of Shawshank Redemption. She texted him to say, “Hello Tabari, me and some of my crew will come see your performance at Biloxi Little Theatre next weekend! All the Best!!! Karen Sock.”
“She came to see me specifically,” Daniels said. “Now, I’m nervous. Now I’ve got to bring it.” She showed up with friends in tow.
That was the thing. Sock loved people. She loved getting to know them, making them laugh, enjoying their company.
She was like a sister to Paige Roberts. For Pathways, Roberts managed the details and Sock had the vision. And Sock was courageous. Once, they approached a federal official while working in the Delta. Within 10 minutes, they had talked him out of $50,000. “We got into the parking lot and did a chest bump,” Roberts said.
Roberts received a text from Sock in the fall. Sock said doctors had discovered a cancerous mass the size of a baseball that was causing pain in her right side. Radiation and a biopsy were next. She followed the text with emojis: praying hands, a heart and a four-leaf clover.
Sock told Gulf Coast Woman Magazine in a 2016 interview: “Hopefully, sharing my journey will help others; I am full of strength and courage! My attitude is one of gratitude, and I have a big, bodacious faith — as I know one day there will be a cure for cancer!”
Roberts said that her friend Karen Sock shared her pain, joy, laughter and tears.
“She brought it all,” Roberts said. “She left us having given it all away. She gave it all away to all of us.”
