Karen Lynn Karch

Karen Lynn Karch April 9th, 1943- August 13th, 2025 “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of my mother, Karen Lynn Karch, who left us on August 13, 2025, at the age of 82 after a beautifully lived life. Full of love, laughter, and resilience, she touched the lives of all who knew her. While she will be profoundly missed, we are comforted to know she is now in the loving arms of her Heavenly Father. Karen was born in Chicago, Illinois on the 9th of April 1943 to the loving parents of Roy and Anne (Lange) Exler. Karen was an exceptional student and a proud ‘Wampum” at Calumet High School while graduating with the class of 1961. She has remained close with her high school friends for the past 64 plus, years and was extremely proud to be head of the reunion committee. After high school, Karen completed a year of studies at Northern Illinois University and went on to begin her outstanding career with the United States Army and Government for 23 years. She distinguished herself by outstanding and meritorious service as the Unity Clerk Letterman in the Pulmonary ward for the Army Medical Center in San Francisco, California then later working for the Gastroenterology Clinic at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas and also went on to work for Budge Dental Clinic on the same base. In 1970, at the Army Veterinary School in Chicago, she met and fell in love with her beloved, Jack (Master Sergeant) Karch, and they were soon married at Golgotha Lutheran Church on the 28th of May 1972. Karen and Jack had one daughter, Kari Anne, who was born on the 4 th of July. She was the most patriotic Army wife and mother who was overjoyed to spend most of her life living in different parts of the world including Stainach, Austria and Kaierslautern, Germany. Her life as a military dependent afforded her the opportunities to travel to over 13 countries and bring home years of valuable memories to which she told the tales up until the days of her passing. Karen’s love for travel spearheaded her enate ability to spend countless hours shopping all over the world and collecting valuable items to be cherished and one day passed down. She had a fabulous sense of style, always donning the glitziest and glamourous wardrobe even into her later years where she was most known for elaborately decorating her walkers. Each season had an ornate walker to which countless strangers would stop to admire her creative work. She was always a crafty woman, creating show-stopping appetizers for parties, painting intricately detailed ceramics, crafts for every occasion, and constructing her famous, Esmerelda, the Ironing Board Bride which she gifted to her friends and family. One of Karen’s most proud moments was when her daughter, Kari Anne, met the love of her life, Trey Miller, and she was finally able to call herself ‘mother-in-law’. She even referred to Trey as her ‘favorite son-in-law’ while letting everyone and anyone know how proud she was and even more proud to be called Oma. Her grandchildren, Hanna Elizabeth and Cameron Wesley were the apple of her eye, spoiling them with gifts of love any time she was around them. To know Karen was to know an incredibly kind, loving, generous, and quirky spirit. She will be missed beyond words. A memorial service will be held on August 21, 2025 at McCauley Sullivan Funeral Home 530 W Boughton Road in Bolingbrook, IL at 12pm with visitation from 10am-12pm. Procession and burial to Bethania Cemetery in Justice, IL to follow the service.

Karen Lynn Karch

April 9, 1943 - August 13, 2025