Karen Beulah Burns Bell, 76, passed away in her sleep on January 4, 2025, after a fight with lung cancer.  She was born in Feb 1948 to a very strict Christian family in Mt. Storm, WV.

After high school she had the opportunity to attend Julliard, however, chose to pursue a music degree at WV University in Morgantown.  After 2 years, Karen decided to enter Secretarial School in Hagerstown, MD.  It was there that she met George Robert (Bob) Burns (dec. 1992).  After they married, they moved to Arlington, MD, where Karen got a job as a medical secretary while her husband finished his schooling in electrical engineering.

After Karen's husband signed on with an Aerospace company, they were sent to the Seychelles where she lived for 2 ½ years.  From there, they were sent to Alaska where their daughter was born. From Alaska, they moved to Guam where the family experienced one of the worst Typhoons ever recorded at that time, Typhoon Pamela.  A few years later, Karen's husband signed on with a different Aerospace company and they were moved to Santa Maria, CA.  From Santa Maria, they were sent to Alice Springs, Australia.  While there a major power outage happened, and they were without power for 2 months in the middle of the desert.  Karen was able to keep up all the "yanks" morale by coming up with ways to support one another.  Four years later, she and her family moved again to the mountains of Western NC for four years.  Then they moved again to Los Angeles, CA. where Karen got a job as a jeweler's apprentice.  Two years later, Karen's husband died unexpectedly, and she and her daughter returned to NC.  Eventually, Karen met and married her second husband, Larry Bell, and they had 6 wonderful years together before he was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer and passed away in 2001.

Karen was patient, kind, giving, loved music, played handbells, was a voracious reader, a faithful Christian disciple who was always ready for the next adventure with her daughter and grandson and loved telling stories of her life when asked.

Karen was preceded in death by her brother, parents, and husbands.  She is survived by her daughter, grandson, one aunt, a sister-in-law, two brothers-in-law, one niece, one nephew and a multitude of cousins that she grew up with.