Karen Duehr

Karen Jean Duehr (Christianssen), 52 (1972 - 2025) Beloved wife, sister, aunt, musician, and nurse. Born June 3rd, 1972, to Ken and Carol Christianssen of Lakewood, Colorado, as the youngest of four siblings, Karen grew up the "baby sister" of three older brothers, Curt, Carl, and Keith.

 The family spent time camping in many of the National Parks throughout her childhood, and she loved camping her entire life. Karen's family are devout Christians and she grew up enjoying church and worship music and music of all genres in her childhood home. Karen took piano lessons and sang, which began a lifelong love of music.

Karen began singing and performing in church and school and continued that throughout her school years. Karen sang in church choirs and school choirs. If singing was happening, Karen was there! 

Karen was born with a genetic disorder called Turner's Syndrome, which her parents and siblings never let define her in any way. However, it meant a few more medical visits as a young girl and involvement in some medical studies. This helped spark an early interest in the nursing profession.

 Karen had an aptitude for biology and math, both leading toward her nursing goals in school. During her college years, she even read about herself in her genetics textbook from the studies in her childhood!

 While in high school, Karen met her future husband, Nate Duehr, at church youth group events. While parents and siblings provided wise counsel to complete schooling before marriage, Karen and Nate continued to date throughout their college years. Nate was an aspiring pilot and "tech guy”, and took Karen for her first light airplane flight at age nineteen. She was instantly "hooked"! Nate and Karen flew regularly and co-owned a Cessna 182 airplane for over a decade with friends.

 With one semester of college left to complete, Karen married Nate in June of 1995. Karen and Nate honeymooned camping in the desert southwest. Nate and Karen then had to "split up" with Nate working at his first "real job" in technology in Denver, and Karen completing her BS in Nursing at the University of Iowa in December of 1995. 

They began their new life together and started building careers. Karen’s first job was as a CNA, then a nurse in elderly care, and various other venue. Later roles included dialysis and many years of home-care nursing. Karen’s next phase of nursing began with her decision to go back to school to earn a specialty in wound care nursing (WOCN) from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. A lifelong learner, Karen was considering starting a master’s degree in nursing education just prior to her passing. In recent years, Karen worked in numerous wound care clinics with HCA and had recently returned to home care with Avida Home Health. Karen and Nate lived and worked in the Denver metro area throughout her life.

 Nate and Karen had no children, but this allowed Karen to focus on nieces and nephews as they came along and also keep up on the lives of friends’ children, all of whom she cared deeply for. Every piece of news about them was cherished and she was happy for them, wept when they hurt and celebrated as they grew and matured. She loved sending cards for special occasions. 

Nate and Karen were also dog lovers, who have had 4 generations of rescue dogs and one very strange cat. They had moved out of the city to four acres of land 13 years prior to Karen’s passing and had plenty of room for "the pups" to enjoy. 

Early in their lives together Karen discovered Sweet Adelines Intl., a women's barbershop singing organization and the Skyline Chorus in Denver, CO. This became three decades of song, performances, highs, lows, friends and love. She performed in multiple quartets and in more than one chorus. In 2002 she joined a quartet named Deja Vu, who performed together for 23 years. The chorus and quartet won countless awards over those years, and the friends she made, truly became family.

 Nate also had numerous hobbies in which Karen happily participated including: Ham Radio (Karen was licensed as KC0KTI), aviation (with multiple trips to Oshkosh, WI for EAA AirVenture), and numerous air shows and fly-in trips over the years. Particularly memorable were events at Gaston's White River Ranch in Arkansas and others. Many of their aviation, radio, and other friends across the country and even around the globe, became fast friends with Karen and again, many were also considered "family".

 Karen and Nate traveled as much as they could, and went to live music and shows often. Camping was common as well as typical for vacations, until 2013. Even though they knew about it from its inception, they had never gone on a special music cruise called The Rock Boat. When Nate's father passed away, Karen and Nate decided to set sail on Rock Boat XIII, which culminated in their going a total of ten times together, through Rock Boat XXIV. As other family members and friends passed away, including Karen's father and brother, these trips were also "dedicated" to their memory. 

Karen and Nate attended numerous "regular" concerts, many house concerts and numerous major Broadway musicals throughout her life. Total events numbered in the hundreds! Red Rocks Amphitheater was a favorite venue and highlights there included Blues Traveler (multiple July 4th weekends), Bruce Hornesby, NeedToBreathe and many more. 

Throughout all of those concerts, one special band has been a lifelong favorite of Karen's: Sister Hazel. She was proud to be a HazelNut and one of her first live rock concerts was a standing room only concert in the 1990s in Denver. She had nearly their entire discography memorized and could sing nearly any song by heart. Sister Hazel are the hosts of aforementioned The Rock Boat. 

From nursing, to singing, to concerts and the arts, to travel, via her quiet philanthropy, and even via tech, Karen was blessed with good friends all over the world. 

Karen passed away suddenly May 17th, 2025, at a regional singing competition in Cheyenne, WY. The cause was a complication connected with the genetic disorder. She would want everyone to know she is now with Jesus.

 Because of her belief in service to others, Karen was a lifelong philanthropist, who donated significant time and funds to many organizations. In lieu of flowers or gifts, a donation to any of these organizations in her name would be appropriate: Compassion International – www.compassion.com

Rick Murphy / Total Release Ministry – Adams County Jail - http://globalservicenetwork.org/give/51116001

Lyrics for Life - www.lyricsforlife.org

Sweet Adelines International:

Skyline Chrous - skylinechorus.net

Rocky Mtn Region 8 - www.rmr8.org

K-LOVE Radio - www.klove.com

The Turner Syndrome Society of the United States - www.turnersyndrome.org

Karen is survived by her husband, Nate Duehr, and her brothers Carl and Curt Christianssen and their families. (And her big loveable Daniff boy dog, Charlie!)

A photo album has been set up by Nate here: Karen Memories

Additional photos or multimedia are welcomed, e-mail to: rememberkaren@singbari.com Nate and the family would like to thank her friends for the outpouring of love and support. Thank you so very much.