Karen M. Pauly

Karen M. Pauly, 80, of Urbandale, Iowa, lost her long and courageous battle with the demons of dementia and died of the ravages of Alzheimer’s on Sunday, April 24, 2022.

Karen was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on October 28, 1941, the last of seven sisters, to Evelyn and Carl Schrup.

After graduation from high school, where she won awards for her typing and shorthand skills (they were a thing in her day) she took her first job as a confidential secretary in the Dubuque County welfare office.

She married Michael Pauly, her high school sweetheart of seven years, on June 17, 1961. They moved to Des Moines, where she settled in as wife, mother and homemaker. She loved to draw, and was a voracious reader.

Karen worked for a while as a secretarial assistant in the editorial department at The Des Moines Register, but she relished caring for her husband and four children and “just puttering around the house” as she put it. More than once that puttering around nearly killed Mike, he joked, as he stumbled over furniture in the dark that had been moved into his usual route through the house before he returned home in the wee hours after his night shift.

Karen was a warm and loving friend throughout her life to those she was close to.

She is survived by her husband, Mike; daughters, Lisa (Mitch) Hushak of Granger, Iowa, and Fort Pierce, Florida, and Alana, better known as Lonnie (Dallas) Palmer of Atchison, Kansas; sons, Steven (Patty) of Winterset, Iowa, and Marshall (Kate) of Ankeny, Iowa; grandchildren, Tyler Pauly, Darren Hushak, Erin Lachen, Allie Pauly and Nick Pauly; great-grandchildren, Casper Lachen, Charlie Hushak and August Lachen; sister, Mary Kay (Shatzie) Saul-Speak; and a number of nieces, nephews and cousins.

The family thanks the staff at Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center for the care and love they provided for several years, as well as the medical staff at Deerfield Retirement Community and especially the compassionate members of Suncrest Hospice who cared for Karen in her final days.

Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of Iowa or to Alzheimer’s Disease Research. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the USDA Forest Service for seedlings to be planted in a National Forest.

The body has been cremated, with ashes to be scattered in Yellowstone National Park and the mountains of the West, where Karen loved to travel. No services are planned. Condolence expressions at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com.

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