Mrs. Karen Entrikin

Karen Lou Entrikin, (née Scott), 74, of Columbia, MO., died on Sunday, June 19, 2022, at Boone Hospital Center, Columbia, MO. Karen was a gregarious, quick-witted and kind woman, and will be dearly missed by all who knew her. Her motto was “Live simply, be kind.”

Born on November 4, 1947, Karen was the daughter of the late Orville and Ruth Gerding Scott. She grew up in New Franklin, Mo., and was a 1965 graduate of New Franklin High School. She subsequently graduated from the University of Missouri in 1972, with a Bachelor of Science in Education with a major in Physical Education. On December 22, 1968, she married Barton Entrikin, and 5 years later their son, Ean Scott Entrikin, was born.

Fresh out of high school, Karen entered the work world as a secretary at the then-named University of Missouri Medical Center, where she worked for 11 years. She then began her long career as the office manager of Women’s Health Associates, Columbia, where she worked from 1976 to 2000, when she retired. She was surely a force as an office manager - some of the doctors’ children even referred to Karen as “my Dad’s boss.”

In retirement Karen was an enthusiastic volunteer of the Friends of the Columbia Public Library. She enjoyed many friendships with the library staff and volunteers. She particularly relished her work on the library’s selection panel for the annual One Read program.

Karen was an avid, wide-ranging, careful reader who savored multilayered novels filled with elegant sentences and well-described images that captured her mind’s eye. She loved being on her screened-in porch reading and going to her book groups. You could always count on Karen for a good book recommendation. Among her favorite authors were Alice Munro, Ann Patchett, Richard Powers, Richard Russo, Elizabeth Strout and Peter Taylor. Among the last books Karen read were Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr, and Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles, and she loved them both. Her other enjoyments in life included swimming, bird watching, following sports, particularly college basketball and softball, cooking a pot of soup and baking cookies, puttering in her yard, and sipping a beer while preparing dinner.

Along with her husband and son, Karen is survived by her fraternal twin, Sharon Morey, and her husband, Mike, Columbia, and by her sister, Suzanne Einspahr, and her husband, Berdon, Boonville, Mo., and their son, Mason, Overland Park, KS. Also remaining are her sister-in-law, Gael Entrikin, and her husband, Raymond Schmitz, Rochester, MN., and her sister-in-law, Ann Thorne, and her husband, Creath, Savannah, MO., and their son, Jacob Thorne, and his wife, Paulette, Wildwood, MO., and their daughter, Elizabeth Thorne Wallington, and her husband Joe, Kansas City. She also leaves behind 5 grandnieces, Violet Wallington and Annabelle, Clara, Ella and Grace Thorne, as well as a bevy of dear friends and 9 cousins who share fond memories of play at their Gerding grandparents’ farm in the Missouri River bottomland along Highway 40, east of New Franklin, MO.

It was Karen’s wish to be cremated and to not have a funeral. A celebration of life will occur at a later date. Memorials in Karen’s honor are suggested to the Friends of the Columbia Public Library or to the Agnew-Mallinckrodt Memorial Scholarship fund, New Franklin (MO.) Public Schools.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.memorialfuneralhomeandcemetery.com for the Entrikin family.