Karen Rachelle Carlson was born May 12, 1965, at Pioneer Memorial hospital in Viborg, South Dakota. She was the youngest child of Boyd and Margaret (Nelson) Ostrem of Centerville, South Dakota. She passed away peacefully holding her father's hand on April 29th 2013, in the Centerville Good Samaritan Nursing Home. Karen graduated from Centerville High School in 1983. She graduated from South Dakota State University with a BS degree in commercial economics in 1987. She enjoyed her experiences so much at SDSU that she made sure that her boys visited family and relatives that were attending school there, and took them too many sporting events for good family fun. Karen worked at the Brookings Bank while her husband finished his schooling. She then transferred to one of the bank's branches in Sioux Falls while they moved to Beresford and established themselves in the Beresford community. Karen started working for the Beresford School system in 1992 as a teacher's aide. She decided to pursue a career back into the business world in 2006 when she started working for Gary and Amy Schaap as an Ameriprise Financial administrative assistant. She joyfully shared her smile and unique sense of humor with everyone she worked for and with. Karen married the love of her life Stuart Carlson on June 12th, 1987. Their two boys were Karen's world the minute they were born. Cody was born in 1992 and Austin in 1994. Her hobbies were attending and volunteering with the boys' sporting events. She never missed an event since they started their activities in the 3rd grade and was always willing to help them get better. If you ever see a picture of Karen more than likely she is with one or both of the boys at a sporting event. She was extremely proud of them as she watched them develop into young men. Karen also loved to cook, and you guessed it, her favorite group to cook for was her family. She always wanted to try new things but had to get it approved by "The Boys" first before she made it for other people. Karen pursued her relationship with the lord through daily devotions, prayer and through her patience, kindness, smile and gentleness. She was baptized and confirmed at Immanuel Free Lutheran Church in Centerville, married in Scandia Lutheran Church in Centerville and later joined the Beresford Zion United Methodist of Beresford. Karen always was willing to share her many talents as a Sunday school teacher, church organists, basketball/football mom, being on BABC committees, track & field worker, and pretty much anything the school or community asked of her. No matter what was asked of her she was always willing to give it a shot since she knew that it was going to help someone else or make someone's day brighter. Her mother preceded her in death. Her surviving loved ones include her husband Stuart Carlson, son's Cody and Austin Carlson, father Boyd Ostrem, brothers Tim Ostrem, wife Kari; David Ostrem, wife Kelly; father and mother-in-law Marvin and Delores Carlson, brother-in-law Layne Carlson, wife Patsy; and many nieces/nephews, great nieces/nephews, aunts/uncles and cousins. Please consider donating to these organizations in Karen's name: American Cancer Society - www.cancer.org Beresford Area Foundation - http://beresford.sdcommunityfoundation.org/ Centerville Care & Rehab - formally Centerville Good Samaritan Center Beresford Athletic Booster Club - http://www.beresford.k12.sd.us/domain/60