Karen Warren

Madison - Karen Lynn Warren, age 87, of Madison, Wisconsin, died on March 13, 2020, after battling breast cancer for more than a year. She was born in the Chicago, Illinois area on July 30, 1932, and was adopted into the loving Jacobson family from Minnesota shortly after her birth. She spent her early years mostly in Iowa and Illinois, and has fond memories of the days when her father was a school principal.

The young family moved to Eugene, Oregon in the 1940’s, where her father Dr. Paul B. Jacobson would become Dean of the School of Education of the University of Oregon. Karen married her high school sweetheart Kenny in 1952, while both were attending the U of O, and the children came along in 1953, 1955 and 1957.

Karen was a lifelong musician, playing the flute and piano in high school and college, and earning her Master’s Degree in Music Theory. She was an excellent church organist, ending her long and varied church music career as Music Director at the Asbury United Methodist Church in Madison, Wisconsin.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents, Paul and Lorinda Jacobson, her husband, Kenneth L. Warren, and her daughter-in-law Cassandra Warren. She leaves behind her children, Kenneth L. Warren, Jr., Carol Wessler (Peter) and Linda Warren; as well as grandchildren, Daniel Wessler (Molly) and Jonathan Wessler (Joy); and great-grandchildren, Julia, Matthew, and Benjamin Wessler.

In Karen’s memory, please consider donations to her favorite charities: The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank, and The Cradle, the adoption agency in Illinois where she was adopted from, and which she continued to support throughout her life.