JoAnna Marie Karren

February 11, 1930, JoAnna Marie was born to Ted Glisson and Pearl Bradbury Glisson in Oilton, Oklahoma. This home birth was not officially recognized until 1982 when family witnesses and school records certified her birth information. While living with her grandmother, Elizabeth Bradbury, she graduated Drumright High School in 1947 at the age of 17.

Shortly after graduation, she travelled to Vernal, Utah to visit her mother. There she met and married Guy Edward Karren. In June of 1948 she gave birth to her first child, Susan Elizabeth. Two more children were born to JoAnna and Guy. Michael Edward was born in Cushing, Oklahoma in 1950 and Kathy Marie was born in Chico, Ca. in 1953.

Her son, Michael , and her husband of 57 years, Guy, preceded JoAnna in death. She is survived by her daughters, Susan Wood and Kathy Horton; her grandchildren, Jamie Durham, Tyler Palmer, Seth Wood, Kelly Beeman, Kory Horton, and Kristen Briggs; and her great-grandchildren, Beau and Alyse Durham, Maxwell Palmer, Odika Wood, Charley and Cody Briggs, and Yaden and his soon to be born brother, Kai.

JoAnna endured many illnesses and surgeries through the years. She died of cancer on Tuesday, May 17, 2011. She passed in her own home with her “girls” Susan and Kathy.

She will be remembered as a kind, gentle woman with a beautiful smile. Next to being a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother, she loved teaching Sunday School. The majority of her 81 years was dedicated to serving God and sharing the teaching of the King James Version of the Bible.

Arrangements under the direction of Mish Funeral Home, Bakersfield, CA.