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Karen Cassady Keller
April 7, 2024
Karen Cassady Keller, formerly of Ozark, Alabama died peacefully at her home in Pensacola, Florida Friday, April 5, 2024, surrounded by her loving family.
A requiem mass will be celebrated for Karen at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Pensacola. Commitment will be at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Pensacola.
Karen moved with her family to Ozark, Alabama in 1971 when her oldest child was 14 and her youngest child was 2 years old. Ozark became her home for the next five decades. She was a single mom way before the term was coined. Landing in Ozark with five children, the town became her adopted home and her children’s foundation for the rest of their lives. She worked three jobs to keep food on the table, gas in the car, and to enable her children to always be able to participate in the youthful rites of passage that presented themselves. She also became mom to many of her children’s friends, often being affectionately called “Mama K-Bird”, the nickname of her son being added to complete the moniker.
Hers was a generation where women traditionally did not work outside the home, so the process of finding a job was hard work in and of itself. Through dogged perseverance, Karen became a member of the administrative staff at the Alabama Aviation and Technical College (AATC) in Ozark. She proudly retired from AATC after 28 years of dedicated service to the college. In addition to her main career, and to help make ends meet, she worked other jobs. Mr. Louis Garcia employed Karen at his store and she also did babysitting as her 3rd side-gig, again long before that term was even created. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Troy State University.
Karen’s love and devotion to God and her Catholic faith was life-long and everlasting. She was one of God’s angels who took great care of her children and so many others all the days of her life. She was a communicant at St. John Catholic Church in Ozark.
Karen loved to travel. Following her retirement, and for more than a decade, each summer she and her youngest son, a professor at the University of West Florida, would travel by car across this country during his school breaks. She visited each state, including Alaska and Hawaii. She had an affinity for Key West, Florida. Something about the freedom to be yourself without judgement struck a chord with her. She visited there several times. Karen loved all kinds of music. Her parents were very musically talented. Her father was a self-taught pianist and organist of the highest caliber. Her mother received a full scholarship to Julliard. She also loved sports, both playing and watching them. She played basketball in an era when women played 6-on-6 with designated offensive and defensive positions that stayed on their side of the court for the duration of the games.
All of Karen’s children graduated from Carroll High School in Ozark. She was a strong supporter of the CHS band and athletics programs. The annual Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament at CHS bears her name in recognition of her tireless support and the many hours she cheered from the stands and served hotdogs and snacks in the concession stands. Karen also enjoyed Alabama Crimson Tide football. She has been to Talladega for a NASCAR race, to the Yankee Stadium for a World Series game, and she graced every ballpark, playing field, gymnasium and swimming pool in Ozark as she watched her five children participate. She cherished her time with her five grandchildren and participated in each of their upbringings. Her three great grandchildren gravitated to her, the youngest of whom would ride with her in her wheelchair.
Karen was a child of the Great Depression which taught her to use everything to its fullest extent and not waste anything. These traits served her greatly as she raised her large family on her own. She beat cancer twice and survived a stroke with no residual effects, even driving herself to Dale Medical Center and dragging herself into the ER. She truly was an Iron Lady. Karen’s favorite saying was “Life is Good” and she lived each day of her life that way. We will greatly miss her and are forever grateful to the lives she gave us, the lessons she taught us, and the paths she showed us. We were blessed to have been raised by a mother with a steel backbone, an iron will and a love for her children that knew no bounds.
Karen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin November 19, 1935. She was preceded in death by her father, Burton James Cassady, Jr. and her mother, Elvina Roesler Cassady.
She is survived by her brother Joe T. Cassady (Marty) of Salado, Texas; her five children, LTC Brian Cassady Keller, US Army (retired) (Karin), Pensacola, Florida; Mark Duane Keller, Ozark, Alabama; Karen Keller Richards, Hoover, Alabama; Scott Burton Keller, PhD, Pensacola, Florida; Jennifer Elizabeth Keller, Pensacola, Florida: her five grandchildren, Zachary Richards, Montgomery, Alabama; Nathan Richards, Houston, Texas; Jared Richards, Hoover, Alabama; Cassady Varner, Knoxville, Tennessee; and Dominic Keller, Pensacola, Florida; and her three great grandchildren, Cullen Varner, Jolie Varner and Cormac Varner, all of Knoxville, Tennessee.
The family wishes to thank Maureen McBride for her love and care of mom, and the many medical professionals who attended Karen, especially the caring nurses and aides of Vitas in Pensacola and the personal caregivers who provided compassionate and loving care and attention to Karen’s needs.
Services for Karen C. Keller will be held Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at St. John Catholic Church. The family will receive friends for visitation and rosary at 2:00 p.m. Funeral mass will begin at 3:00 p.m. Karen will be laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North, 1000 South Highway 29, Cantonment, is entrusted with arrangements.
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