Duncan, Karen Lee Johnson - 1940-2011

DAVITT, DUNCAN, HAEBERLE, JOHNSON, PATTON

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 9/24/2024 at 15:22:39

Services for Karen Lee Duncan, 71, who passed away Wednesday, November 2, 2011, at the Village in Indianola will be held 10:30 a.m., Saturday, November 5 at the Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Indianola. Cremation will follow services.
Karen Lee Johnson was born October 14, 1940, to Kenneth and Dorothy Johnson in Huntington, West VA. She was joined in 1944 by a sister, Sandra Kay.
Karen attended Huntington schools and graduated from Huntington High in 1958 before going on to Marshall University in Huntington, where she was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority. She graduated in 1962 with a degree in education. While there she met her husband, Owen Lowe Duncan Jr. They had attended high school together, but only met in their sophomore year at college. The two were married August 18, 1962.
She taught high school English in Mt. Sterling, Ohio from 1962 until 1964. In 1966, their daughter, Amy, was born in Circleville, Ohio.
The family then moved to Columbus, Ohio, while Owen attended Ohio State University from 1966 to 1969. They moved to Iowa in 1969, where Owen took a job teaching history at Simpson College. They became a part of the Simpson family. Their friends there became like family and their love and support was vital to both Karen and Owen through her illness the last year.
Karen and Owen's second daughter, Lora, was born on their wedding anniversary, August 18, 1970. Karen went to work at Simpson College in 1977, working in marketing and communications and later in the information office until she retired in 2004. From a tiny office at the entrance of Hillman Hall, she hired and mothered some 20 Simpson students and coaxed the faculty into providing the information she needed to produce each year's college catalog.
Karen was a member of Simpson Guild.
Karen's greatest gift to her family was the home that she created for them. She was a crafter and a seamstress, making outfits for the girls and Christmas decorations that were sold for many years at the Elves Auction to raise money for the Simpson Guild. Her greatest joy was her two grandchildren, Elizabeth and Duncan. She was eagerly anticipating the birth of her third grandchild, Lora's baby, due in the spring. She and her nurse at the Village, are the only ones to know the secret of the baby's gender, a secret she learned and cherished a few days before she passed away.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Kenneth and Dorothy Johnson. She is survived by her husband, Owen; her sister, Sandy Haeberle; her daughters, Amy Duncan (Mark Davitt), and Lora Patton (James Patton), as well as her grandchildren, Elizabeth and Duncan.
Memorials may be made to Simpson College, Simpson Guild, or Trinity United Presbyterian Church.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m., Friday, November 4 at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola, with family present from 6 to 8 p.m. Online condolences may be made at www.overtonfunerals.com.
Published in Des Moines (IA) Register; Thursday, November 3, 2011, page 9B