Obituaries

KAREN MALLORY

(NÉE BRECHNER)

With deep sadness, but surrounded by song, we mark the passing of our dear mother, grandmother, sister, chorister, mentor and friend on August 10, 2020.

Karen was born on June 18, 1938 in Denver, Colorado to Lois Elizabeth (née Cloud) and Darwin Lester (DL) Brechner, the eldest of three siblings. During her school years she was active in many choirs and played clarinet in high school.  She attended Washington State College where she was active in the university concert and touring choirs. It was at WSC that she met and married Oscar Lowell Mallory (September 9, 1960). Karen moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1963 and then to Winnipeg, Canada in 1969, joining church and community choirs in both places. Karen presided over a home where the door was always open and where family, friends and acquaintances came to be fed and succored in her active kitchen. She was an enthusiastic supporter in her kids’ classrooms and she never missed a school concert, play, or recital. She began working at Children’s House Montessori School in the 70’s. It was here that her affinity for teaching and mentoring blossomed into a life-long career. She ultimately became the director of Cairns Children’s Centre until her retirement. She touched the lives of hundreds of people during her career and was always thrilled to hear from a former student or employee. Karen’s retirement freed her to fully embrace her love of being involved.  She assisted in school classrooms, at Hospice and Palliative Care fundraisers, Royal Canadian College of Organists concerts, Girl Guides activities, St George’s Church, the NDP and provided bookkeeping for several community choirs. She joined as many choirs as she could find including St George’s Anglican Church choir, University of Manitoba choir, SummerChör, Joie de Vivre, St David’s Singers, Al Antiqua, ReSound, and the Westworth United Church Handbell choir. She loved Christmas for the songs and wasn’t much of a fan of Lent for the same reason.  She sang while she cooked and taught her children to sing rounds and part songs on long car rides.

Karen was an inquisitive soul who kept dictionaries and encyclopedias in the dining room for easy reference, and myriads of books on every shelf in her house. She was a seamstress and pattern maker who created and constructed wedding gowns and bridesmaid and flower girl dresses from scratch.  She loved to create menus and cook them, garden, paint, create stained glass, make paper, feed the birds, do cross-words, write letters, collect small boxes and art that “spoke to her”, do things and go places with her grandkids, photograph nature, travel, camp in her tipi and surround herself with people she could feed.

She leaves, to sing for her life and to mourn her passing, her children; Tana Rei, Shaun Adam (Shauna) , Jay Darian and Tia Sian (Gary); her grandchildren, Leigh, Taelan, Bourke, Annemiek, Robyn, Myren, Kai and Thomas, her siblings Lynne (David) and Kevin as well as nieces, nephew and countless friends.

A celebration of Karen’s life will be live-streamed at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, 2020.  A link to the service can be found at http://www.stgeorges.mb.ca/.  An in-person requiem service is planned for next year, August 10, 2021 at St. George’s Crescentwood Anglican Church.

Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear the music ringing.

It finds an echo in my soul.

How can I keep from singing?

-Robert Lowry