Karen Sue (Yates) Elyea was born on October 14, 1943 in Springfield, MO to George and Lorene Yates. She lived in Springfield from birth through her grade school years. Most significantly for her, her grade school education was at Elfindale Academy, a Catholic school with nuns as her teachers. While she was not Catholic, she was clearly influenced by the caring and serving attitude of the nuns. Their teaching and example shaped her approach to life!
Her family moved to Trenton, Mo. as she started Junior High and she lived there through high school. She worked at the Plaza Movie Theatre after school and met Dave Elyea who was a bell hop in the Plaza Hotel located in the same building. Their friendship resulted in Karen writing Dave a letter while he was attending KU and inviting him to be her date for the girl’s athletic association Christmas dance. Their friendship quickly became a romantic relationship and they were married two years later on August 4, 1962. Dave still had three years of college remaining and Karen worked for the university full time to provide majority support for the family. The family became three when Steve was born a year after their marriage. When Dave graduated in 1965, Karen was presented with a PHT (putting hubby through) certificate which she prized as much as he prized his diploma!
Following graduation, Dave accepted a position with Macy’s in Kansas City and Karen worked for the J.C. Nichol’s company in their offices. They moved to Topeka, KS after Dave completed training. During their time in Topeka, Debbie was born in 1967 completing the family. When they moved back to Overland Park, Ks two years later, Karen started a licensed day care in their home to be able to stay home with Debbie and Steve while still helping with family income.
In 1972, Dave accepted a store manager position with Parisians in Vestavia Hills, AL and Karen accepted a position with BT&T bank as a loan administrative assistant. Dave was transferred to Montgomery, AL in 1977 and Karen accepted an administrative position at Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church working for the Minister of Evangelism. She was later promoted to office manager, the position she held until moving to Tallahassee, FL in 1981.
Dave opened his first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Tallahassee Mall and Karen was his assistant manager in charge of the kitchen. She later worked briefly for the mall management company, and then resumed her banking career at Barnett Bank as a loan officer’s administrative assistant. Karen and Dave moved to Orlando in 1986 where Dave opened another Chick-fil-A restaurant and Karen transferred to Barnett Bank of Central Florida. She worked for Barnett in several capacities and eventually became the Executive Assistant to the market president. In this capacity, she served a total of seven presidents and worked for three different banking companies as Barnett was merged with Nation’s Bank and then Nation’s Bank merged with Bank of America.
Prior to her working for the seventh president Karen retired in the spring of 2001. In the fall of 2001, Bank of America promoted a new market president for whom Karen had worked years earlier. He called her to see if she would consider coming out of retirement at the moment in time where she was feeling bored! She gratefully accepted and did not retire for good until November of 2007. Dave retired shortly after in February of 2008 and they begin living a retired life of leisure and travel! During the next several years they enjoyed a number of cruises, including Alaska, the Panama Canal, and two transatlantic cruises ending in Rome, Italy. They were also able to spend most of the summers in their condo in Boone, NC.
Karen was diagnosed in December, 2010 with Multiple Myeloma, a treatable but incurable cancer. She spent nearly 50 days in the hospital in 2011 with one of the hospitalizations for a bone marrow transplant. Following the transplant the cancer was in remission and she was able to cruise and travel again! She remained in good health until July of 2013 when her cancer became active again. The treatment that was started at that time was partially successful, but she developed several other health issues from which she ultimately succumbed on November 2, 2013 in Tallahassee, FL. She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Lorene Yates, her brother Larry Yates, and sister Gloria Cowden.
Throughout her life, Karen loved and cared for all of the people with whom she came in contact. She served every church where she was a member, and freely gave of her time and talents. She often could be found in the church kitchens preparing and serving food, or cleaning and organizing! She worked on stewardship drives, served on numerous committees, and was often called upon to utilize her office administrative abilities. She was usually involved in fellowship events and was often called the “hostess with the mostess”!
Her life was always centered on her family, who learned to love and care for others by her example. She took them to church, made certain that they were involved in church activities, and led them to develop a personal relationship with Jesus the Christ.
She is survived by her loving husband Dave, son Steve (Janice) Elyea with granddaughters Rachel and Rebecca, as well as daughter Debbie (David) Crow with grandchildren Amy, Joshua and Michael.
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