Karen Lewis

Karen I. (Osmundson) Lewis was born November 25, 1941 at St. Ansgar Hospital in Moorhead, MN to Kenneth and Cora (Sorenson) Osmundson. She grew up and attended school in Moorhead, graduating from Moorhead High School in 1959. She started working at Montgomery Ward in Moorhead in high school, then at WW Wallworks and Francis Peterson, Inc., also in Moorhead. She started working at St. Ansgar Hospital in September, 1978, transferring to St. Johns, Heartland Dakota and MeritCare hospitals with the merges. In 2012, she retired from the IT Department at Sanford in Fargo. She married Alfred Lewis of Dilworth, MN on March 10, 1972. He died in 1993. Karen loved her family more than anything else and looked forward to birthdays, weddings and holidays as she loved to celebrate with family and take many, many pictures. She loved shopping at the dollar and thrift stores, always looking for unique items on clearance, then buying 10 of them so she wouldn’t run out and could share with others. Birds and angels had a special place in Karen’s heart as she loved collecting them. She loved decorating for holidays and had an entire basement full of decorations organized by holiday in totes, with labels of course. Thanksgiving and Christmas held a special place in Karen’s heart, as her birthday often fell on Thanksgiving. At Christmas time she would redecorate her house with angels and other holiday cheer. She also loved traveling and playing cards with family, laughing and talking for hours. Karen met all of life’s challenges with such bravery, strength and dignity. She always put others before herself and was the most caring and loving Mom, Grandma, sister, aunt and Godmother anyone could have wished for. She had a sweet, humble, gentle spirit and warm loving smile. She will be missed more than words can say. She is survived and remembered with love by her son, Steven (Juanita) Lewis of Cooperstown, ND; her daughter Nancy (Troy) Brownlee of Fargo, ND; her grandson Sean Kittelson of Fargo, ND; her granddaughter Brooklyn Brownlee of Fargo, ND; her sisters Audrey Johnson of Moorhead, Carol (Lloyd) Heller of West Fargo, and Kathleen (Gary) Anderson of Moorhead, and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister JoAnn Engen, brothers-in-law Joseph Engen and Marlin Johnson, and a nephew, Jason Anderson.