Karen Esther Vogel Vornholt, previously of St. Marys, Ohio and Harris, Missouri passed away peacefully on March 9, 2026, at Elmwood Assisted Living of New Bremen.

Karen was born October 23, 1941, in St. Marys to Eugene and Esther Wibbeler Vogel. By all accounts Karen had an idyllic childhood on the east side of St. Marys and spent endless time with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on the Vogel and Wibbeler sides of the family.

She spent part of her childhood in California, while her father served in the Navy during World War II. After the war, the Vogel family lived on Spruce Street where sister Connie (Gary) Hegemier joined the family followed much later by sister Tami Vogel (deceased 1981). Karen was a 1959 graduate of Memorial High School and lived on Spruce until marrying Steve Vornholt (deceased 2009) in 1961.

Karen lived in almost as many places thereafter as the number of jobs she held from New Knoxville to Fryburg to Wapakoneta to St. Marys and then west to Galt and Harris, Missouri. She worked for Mom and Pop's Restaurant, Brookside Labs, Ohio State Park Service, the Evening Leader, Huffy's, the Trenton Republican Times, and many other places in between. She was a factory worker at Conagra Foods in Trenton, Missouri, from 1988 until her retirement in 2006. For most of her lifetime, Karen was a hands-on, get-the-job-done, tractor-driving, pig-chasing, farm wife, mom, grandma, and great-grandma who always put plenty of food on the table. The biggest compliment she'd ever bestow was to say someone was a hard worker.

Daughters Debra (Don) Klein, Darlene (Chris) Bowers, and son Greg (Deana) Vornholt were the absolute joy of their parents' existence on good days and mostly tolerable on others. But the grandchildren: Mike (Beth) Klein, Emily (Kendall) Willrath, Cody (Mikka Elo) Alexander, Bailey (Jordan Shusterman) Bowers, and Benjamin Bowers and, especially, the eight great-grandchildren: Hannah, Lillian, Renee, and Erica Klein; Rylee, Hailey, and Henry Willrath; and Everly Alexander became the stars of the show upon their arrivals. Grandma Karen doted on the grandchildren and great-grandchildren but held them to some tough standards as well. She was very proud of them and enjoyed showing them off and sharing stories of them with anyone who would listen.

As a married couple, Karen and Steve owned farms north of St. Marys and, in 1981, decided to head west to farm in Missouri. Shortly after Steve's death, Karen moved back to St. Marys eventually landing on Kimberly Drive in a home she loved dearly. She was a three-time cancer survivor. Her family and friends were her favorite hobby. She and Steve were square dancers and bowlers back in the day and Karen loved the county fair for practically her whole lifetime. She also enjoyed feeding people or buying treats she thought they liked, reading books, doing crosswords and sudoku (or, as she called it, sue-dookie), and she had a penchant for Pepsi.

She was in the high school marching band and played clarinet, trumpet, and piano in her younger years and enjoyed music (hymns and classic country). Karen was a shopper and loved her attire to match and coordinate. She liked getting her hair fixed and her closets were always overflowing. Karen loved to decorate for each season and holiday (or watch and direct someone to do it for her) and prized her collections of dishware and knickknacks. She gathered friends along life's journey and treasured them. When she couldn't visit, she corresponded with many of them, especially at Christmas. Karen was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, St. Marys.

We will miss her dearly but find comfort that Karen is now at peace.

Funeral rites will be held 10:00 A.M. Friday, March 13, 2026, at the Miller Funeral Home, 1605 Celina Road, Saint Marys, Pastor Leslie Krieg, officiant.