Karen Cartier

A Mass of Christian Burial for Karen J. Cartier, 81 of Jefferson, Texas will be held on Saturday February 24, 2024, at 11am in The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Jefferson, Texas with Father Isaac Oviedo officiating and under the direction of Haggard Funeral Home. A graveside service will immediately follow at Center Grove Cemetery in Linden, Texas.  A time of visitation will be held on Friday February 23, 2024, from 6-8pm with a Rosary at 6:45pm in the Cpt. Wm. Perry Chapel of Haggard Funeral Home.

Karen Cartier was born on April 27, 1942, in San Diego, California to Daniel Preston Miller and June Agnes Biessel. She developed Lewy Body Dementia around 2019 which progressed rapidly after Thanksgiving 2023. On February 9th she fell and broke her hip, which was the primary cause of her passing.  She met her husband, Ray, in November 1960, when he was three weeks away from finishing his U.S. Air Force tech school in Wichita Falls, Texas. He and two other airmen flipped a nickel to decide whether to hitchhike east or west, and that resulted in their heading eastward.  The car that stopped, dropped them off in Denton, Texas just as two freshman girls from Texas Women’s University were passing by, and the girls invited the three airmen to attend the first freshman dorm dance of the year that evening.

Of the 38 young men at the dance these were the only ones in uniform, and the 300 or more freshman students all wanted to dance with the trio. One girl asked Ray to dance with a shy friend of hers.  Ray did and (impressed by her thinking of someone other than herself) he asked the girl to go outside and talk. He became infatuated by her and returned the next two weekends to see her, prior to his being assigned to Hawaii for three years.  Several hundred letters later, they were married in 1964.  He promised to make her laugh at least once a day for the rest of their lives together and did his best to keep that promise. Their nearly 60 years of marriage resulted in three children: Jon, Michael and Colette, and three grandchildren: Alex, Austin and Brittany.

Karen and Ray were strongly involved in Worldwide Marriage Encounter for over a decade as they taught couples how to have a happy marriage. During their marriage, Ray and Karen never had an argument! The couple was later involved in the St. Vincent de Paul Society for many years, and they both joined the American Red Cross Disaster Services where they worked together for over a decade, helping people who suffered through fires, floods, tornadoes, and even two aircraft crashes at DFW International Airport.

Together they became the founders of the Mid-Cities Stamp Club in Arlington, Texas, serving as the club’s first President and Secretary. Karen later started the Fairytale, Folk Tale Study Unit of The American Topical Association.  This 400-member organization is composed of postage stamp collectors who specialize in collecting stamps which illustrate each individual collector’s favorite topic. Additionally, she authored four books, based on her topical stamp collection, re-writing versions of the stories, which were illustrated by enlarged color stamps which pictured this topic.

The couple took their children to the lower 48 states on driving vacations over a fifteen-year period. When Karen obtained a secretarial job with American Airlines, the family travelled to Alaska and Hawaii. Later she and her husband visited over 60 destinations around the world. Her favorite destination was Papua New Guinea, as one of her favorite college courses was in cultural anthropology.

She was survived by her husband, Ray Cartier, her son, Michael Cartier and his wife Leanna Howard Cartier, her son, Jon Cartier, his wife Kim Wilbanks Cartier and grandson Alex Cartier, her daughter, Colette Cartier Hines, her husband Troy Hines and grandkids, Austin Hines and Brittany Hines, her brother Richard (Rick) Miller, his wife and Paula; her niece Shelli Miller Plank, her husband Phil Plank and their son, Lucas Plank.

Serving as Pallbearers will be Ray Cartier, Troy Hines, Jon Cartier, Michael Cartier, Austin Hines, and Philip Verhalen.

Because a Memorial Garden will be created in her honor, in lieu of cut flowers, send potted plants or flowers.

We are going to celebrate Karen’s life and one of the ways in which she requested us to celebrate it is for everyone who is able to wear brightly colored clothes.

Immediately following the graveside service there will be a reception in the Parish Hall of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Jefferson, Texas.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Karen Cartier, please visit our floral store.