Karen Mercer Tanberg

Karen will be greatly missed by her husband Les; children Erica and Michael; siblings Kathy, Mary Anne, Joan, Jim, John, and mother, Mary.

Karen shared her family?s love for Montana, her home state. Her passions extended to education, as she was a resource room teacher for Seattle Public schools for 13 years, as well as a participation in the world of activism for equality and peace.

More than Montana, teaching and sweets, Karen loved her family and friends. Her unconditional love, kindness, and support penetrated all of our lives and will be regenerated, in her honor, for as long as we walk this earth.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, December 19, 2003 at 3:30 p.m. at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home: 11111 Aurora Avenue N., Seattle, Washington 98133-8299, 206362-5200. A celebratory memorial will follow; location and directions will be provided at the funeral service.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Safe Schools Coalition c/o LAA, 1002 E Seneca, Seattle, WA 98122-4203 or call 206-957-1621, as this organization represents a mix of the many areas to which Karen contributed during her life.

This was written by Karen, herself, ten years ago:

My life began Feb. 5, 1948 in Sidney Memorial Hospital just a few minutes before my identical twin sister, Kathy, was born. Mother and Dr. Harper had planned a surprise birthday present for my dad, Russell Mercer, who had been born just 33 year previously. I had an older brother, Jim, 6, and two older sisters, Mary Ann, 4, and Bonnie, 2 at home. One and a half years later, my younger brother, John, would arrive along with the REA?s electricity soon to follow. It?s hard for me to imagine having six children, three in diapers, and no electricity, but they say it was done. Then in 1957, just after my paternal grandfather passed away, my younger sister Joan, arrived to complete the immediate Mercer family.

We had actually gotten a tv set remember the old black and white snowy picture' for Grandfather by that time, so my first eight years of life saw many technological and personal changes, a pattern oft repeated in the next decades.

My schooling began in the one-room Gossett School with 12 other students in grades one through eight, with one teacher, Mrs. Baxter and later, Mr. Mell.

By 4th grade we had consolidated with Rau and Moore with two rooms and two teachers at Rau School. From pumping and hauling our own drinking water, and the traditionally cold, sensitive snake-infested outhouses to running water with attached bathrooms was a most welcome contrast. I do remember having some reservations about ?giving up? the Gossett Hall dances and even the barn, where we practiced Halloween plays and where we kept the horses we would ride to school occasionally.

With Rau School came my 4-H experiences and eventually morning and evening bus rides to and from ?town? for high school.

I remember George and Esther Scheetz? patience with our 4-H records; Sonny Lorenz? jokes and introduction to automobile maintenance; my trips to MSU in Bozemean for my 4-H demonstration; 4-H Congress; Junior Leadership Camp at Ekalaka.

High school was pretty music-oriented for both Kathy and me. We were in the chorus of ?H.M.S. Pinafore?; attended both district and state music festivals; and were in chorus all four years. Kathy and I were co-editors of the high school yearbook. We had lots of help from Barry Petersen, who is now the noted news anchor man for CBS; worked on class plays; Talon Club volunteer for basketball.

After high school graduation, Kathy and I attended Presentation College in Aberdeen, SD it was at that time that both Kathy and I were listed in Who?s Who in American Junior Colleges; two years at Carroll College in Helena, receiving a BA in Education-History. In the interim Kathy and I spent one summer working in Fairmont, MN in a laundry; another summer we were maids at Eaton?s Dude Ranch at Ranchester, WY, the oldest dude ranch in the U.S. I spent an exciting summer at Medora as motel maid, meeting lots of interesting people from all over the country.

The early 1970s found a large number of new teachers entering the field and many of them, like myself, wanted to teach in Montana. I tried for awhile and even worked in Sidney as a teacher?s aide in summer school in summer school. My first ?real? job was full time and required my college degree. It was an employment counselor for the state Job Service in Helena where I also took additional college courses. Two and one half years I took a job as Montana?s first ?off the street? hire for Mountain Bell Marketing Department. The next two years I spent at the Leadership Institute of Spokane LIOS graduating in May 1977 from Whitworth College in Applied Behavioral Science.

I returned to Montana again, this time to work for two years for the Montana School Boards Association.

On July 8, 1978 I married Les Tanberg and we began to build our ?dream house? on three acres three miles south of Helena in the mountains which took us 12 years, just in time to sell it before our move to Lynnwood, WA, north of Seattle where Les was transferred with his US West employee-assistance, counselor-manager position.

During those 12 busy years I worked five years for U.S. West, formerly Mountain Bell, again in their marketing department, until ?divestiture.?

I spent two years working for state government in the Department of Labor and Industry, CETA, FAX Network, Legislative Information, and about two years in my own business counseling, management consulting, and tried employment leasing while getting certified in Special Education, Psychology, Sociology, and finally completed two years of teaching World Cultures and Psychology at Capital High. All this plus having two children, Erica, born May 6, 1981 and Michael, born June 12, 1983.

We all left Montana in June 1990 to seek our fortunes in Seattle, WA, where Les worked for two years to U.S. West and was laid off. He went back to school to be recertified in School Psychology and is now working at Snohomish, WA, a small school district north and east of Lynnwood. I?m working for the Seattle public schools as Special Education teacher after one year in Seattle high school, one year at a Seattle middle school and am now in a newly-built Seattle Resource Room.

I had a life-changing experience in October 1991 when a former special ed student in a black ski mask terrorized me by barging into my classroom after hours as I was correcting papers and shooting me three times in the stomach at point-blank range with a pellet gun.

Montana still beckons to us, but Erica?s soccer and Michael?s sports baseball, basketball and football keep us here for the time being.

Karen spent the next several years raising her family, educating young minds, and participating in activism in the Seattle area. She was diagnosed with liver cancer in October of 2003, and passed away on the operating table on Friday, December 12, 2003 at the University of Washington Medical Center. Her life was short but full, and our hearts will stay full of love in her memory.

On-line condolences may be made at this site.