Karen Dickenson Smalstig

Carmel, Indiana

January 14, 1944 - July 4, 2022

Karen bravely passed July 4, 2022. To her family, this will forever be known as Karen’s Independence Day.

Her life began in Hempstead, New York, the middle daughter of William M. Dickenson and Katherine Nichols Dickenson. Karen is survived by her sisters Leslie Blatz (now of Tarrytown, New York) and Jane Lawlis (now of Burlington, Vermont). While she was an honor student at Hempstead High School, Class of ‘61, she was fond of playing hooky at Jones Beach and paying a quarter to get into baseball games at Ebbets Field with her grandmother.

She finished her Math Degree at Bucknell University in 3 years, and later used it to become the longtime bookkeeper at the Carmel Racquet Club, and then advanced from teller to Branch Manager/Vice President at American National Bank, as well as in her competitive card games with family and friends in College Meadows and Cool Creek North.

But her first priority was always family. She was in her 60th year of marriage to Edward Barry Smalstig originally of Beaver, Pennsylvania, and mother to Edward Scott Smalstig (born in Lawton, Oklahoma, Fort Sill, and currently of Yorktown, Indiana, wife Tara McDowell Smalstig) and Eric David Smalstig (born in Indianapolis, Indiana and currently of Tustin, California, wife Merija Jansons Smalstig). A perfect “boy mom,” Karen not only shuffled the boys to football, basketball, soccer and baseball practices, but played catch with them until the boys’ arms were sore and her hand was swollen. Between yelling, “Watch that ball…and smack it” at each of her boys’ at bats, she kept score of every one of their baseball games.

She was a good athlete herself, completing several Indy Mini-Marathons, not to mention beating her husband and sons in several sports (tennis, bowling, a round of h-o-r-s-e). Earlier years found her waterskiing at Lake George in upstate New York, and golfing at Sycamore Springs and Woodland Golf Club in Carmel.

She didn’t think she was much of a cook, but people who had her pumpkin bread, chicken cacciatore, baked clams, fresh lobster, lamb with mint jelly, three bean salad, homemade sourdough bread, homemade grape jelly, fried zucchini, homemade ice cream, or Christmas egg casserole, would disagree, as would Barry’s well-earned belly. Karen lived for Christmas and shopped year-round for the perfect thoughtful gifts, most often from a mountain of catalogs that the mail man delivered daily.

Back surgeries limited her mobility to a Zoomer chair in her later years, but not before her Acorn Acres had the most manicured flower beds and perfectly cut lawn. The only man she loved as much as Barry was John Deere. When her wheelchair claimed most of her days, she used those days to assemble family frames and albums of trips to favorite spots like the California coast, Vermont, Pennsylvania, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Hawaii, Bermuda, St. Thomas, and Costa Rica, not to mention the myriad of camping and canoeing trips in Indiana state parks. And there was not a puzzle made that she couldn’t conquer.

Her most cherished role was as Tutu (grandma), which she anointed herself so she could have as cool a name as Pop Pop. Madison, Gehrig, Markus and Athena loved their Tutu-time because it always involved puzzles, games, puttering around the property and making up new recipes. She relished her time at all their activities. Tutu-time also involved grilling, though not the cooking kind, so you had better be ready with thoughtful answers to her questions. And she left this world her way, family and friends at her bedside, delivering loving and directive last words. The Smalstig family is grateful for the extraordinary care provided Karen in her final days by the ER, ICU and Hospice staff at IU North in Carmel.

A celebration of Karen’s life is planned for the afternoon of August 13th (1-3:30pm) at the Balmoral House, 10101 Hamilton Hills Lane, off Allisonville Road in Fishers, Indiana; private family gathering will follow.

Karen loved flowers, but please consider making a gift to one of the following charities that she supported:

• Ronald McDonald House (supporting family members with intense medical needs like her autistic grandson, Markus)

• Parkinson’s Foundation (supporting those like her brother-in-law Nils and family affected by this condition)

• Habitat for Humanity (supporting their self-help ideals)