Karen Mary Schuster

Karen M. Schuster was bom May 15, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois to William and Mary Kush. She had an older brother named Kenneth. She met her husband Phillip J. Schuster in 1971 and they were married at St. Viator's Church in January of 1972. Karen obtained a Masters in counseling from Northwestern Illinois University.

In 1986, she and her husband moved to a small town on the central Oregon coast called Yachats. Three years later, after being told many times that she could not bear children, she gave birth to her only son Matthew, just shy of her fortieth birthday in March of 1989. Sadly, she and her husband divorced in 1999 after many years of struggling and dealing with the hardship of their son's liver disease and eventual transplantation in which her husband donated a portion of his liver to save their son who is now twenty-seven and doing just fine.

For many years she worked for the Siuslaw National Forest as a counselor, then as a supervisory counselor, and finally as an acting center director for the Angell Job Corps just north of Yachats. In 2011 she moved to Arizona to live closer to her childhood friend Anne Roe, who passed away sadly in January of 2013 from ovarian cancer. In July of 2015, Karen was at the height of her physical health. She was fit, walked at least five miles every day, and had even gotten completely off of her diabetes medication through diet and exercise alone. July was unfortunately also when she was diagnosed with a very rare and extremely aggressive cancer called Leiomyosarcoma that started in her right ovary. By April of 2016 things were really bad and, not wanting to die alone with her son in Arizona, she worked with her ex-husband to move back to the village by the sea which she loved.

Although the cancer was horrible and it had taken so much from her it had also offered a much needed healing and catharsis for the family, bringing them much closer together in the end. Karen passed away peacefully in her sleep on the evening of July 14, 2016. She was preceded in death by her parents and brother and is survived by her son Matthew, ex-husband Phillip, and her countless loving friends all over the country.

A Celebration of Karen's Life will be at 12:00 noon, Friday, July 22 at the Yachats Commons.

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