Karen Darlene Oman

Karen Oman was born Karen Darlene Nelson on July 28th, 1940 in Chicago, Il to Aleck and Marcella Nelson. During her young life, her family resided and worked in various locations in Illinois, Minnesota and Montana. Her parents primarily worked in Red Lodge, Miles City, Billings and Forsyth, MT. Her Senior year in high school her family moved back to Fergus Falls, Minnesota to be closer to her father's parents. In August of 1958, shortly after her high school graduation, she married Michael Lee Golden of Miles City, MT. As young adults, they often moved through areas in Montana for work. This included Forsyth, Fort Peck, and Elk Mountain. Their first child, Caryn Lita, was born in Elk Mountain where they lived and worked on a dairy farm and logging camp. After their adventures on Elk Mountain, they moved to Twin Falls, ID where Mike work on construction projects. During the cold winter, they decided to move somewhere warmer so they moved to the Los Angeles, CA area where Karen had extended family members. In 1962, their oldest son, Ruskin was born and in 1967, son Michael Shannon was born. Not too long thereafter, they moved to the Sonoma valley in Northern California. In the early 1970's they moved to the San Francisco area working in Sunnyvale and the San Jose area. In early 1973, Karen and husband, Mike separated due to life style changes. In October of 1974, Karen married Christopher Oman who was enlisted in the US Navy as a Aviation Electronics Technician. Shortly afterward in 1975, The new family welcomed Chris' children, Reanna and Jason from his previous marriage. Also during this time, Karen's mother, Marcella lived with them for several years. As a family of Eight with growing children it seemed there was never enough bedrooms for everyone to sleep in. However the family blossomed as they moved into three different (larger) homes with more bedrooms for everyone. They lived and worked in the San Jose area before moving to the Grants Pass area in 1992. Before moving to Grants Pass, each of the children were grown adults and starting their own lives. Initially Karen and Chris lived in the Merlin area from 1992 until 2004 when they moved into the city of Grants Pass. Karen worked for Albertsons grocery in the Bakery and Customer Service departments from 1996 until 2007. Before that in her career, she worked for engineering firms and insurance agencies. She was an intelligent woman, quick learner and an avid reader of women authors. Karen was a great woman, wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She is mother of five children, nine grandchildren and five plus great grandchildren. She liked music, dancing, playing table board games, jigsaw puzzles and tending to her rose garden. Karen and Chris have been married for fifty-one years and had a wonder life together. During her last four years of life, she suffered with falls with broken pelvis and lower spine injuries, broken hip, heart attack and surgery and three different cancers but she was determined to survive and continue the life she loved. She was a strong Christian woman but in the end with her failing health, she was ready to be with her heavenly Father. She passed away on September 28th of 2026. Over the years, she has had excellent health care with local doctors and hospitals and is very grateful for the care of the medical professionals of the Rogue Valley.

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