Karen Flamme Hayden, born on April 22, 1952, daughter of Stanley and Vernadine (Ewers) Flamme, grew up on the family dairy farm by Pine River and Ash Creek in the beautiful, rolling countryside around Richland Center, Wisconsin. Karen was baptized at and attended Ash Creek Church and played trombone in the Richland Center High School marching band, graduating in the Class of 1970. She loved animals, participating in 4-H activities, and music: piano skills exercised first at Ash Creek Church, she developed so she later become a finalist in State of Wisconsin competitions; singing skills she developed with voice lessons so she later had lead parts in musicals, including Oklahoma and Paint Your Wagon, and was soprano in Handel's Messiah concerts.
She became born again, being saved by faith in Jesus, on December 31, 1970, at the Urbana, Illinois Intervarsity conference. Her faith and personal relationship with God grew over the years to help and inspire her all her life.
For college, Karen attended the University of Wisconsin at Richland Center, then at Platteville, and was granted a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education K-6, Elementary Music K-8 (minor) in 1974. During time in Platteville, she and her roommate with a heart to reach out to students and teenagers opened up the Alpha & Omega Christian Coffeehouse. She moved to Madison in 1975, and was employed as Administrative Assistant first at State of Wisconsin Department of Administration, then at Wisconsin Power & Light Company.
On March 8, 1986, Karen was united in marriage to Terry Hayden at Madison Gospel Tabernacle in Madison, Wisconsin, then moved for Terry's job to Austin, Texas that April where they stayed 18 years. In Austin, Karen enjoyed being a Kindergarten teacher at Central Assembly of God, and the marriage was blessed with four children, Ashley and Amy (adopted from Austin), Nathaniel and Peter (adopted from Kazakhstan). With another move, Karen and Terry reside in beautiful Hutchinson, Minnesota, where they have been members of Riverside Church since 2004. They shared 29 years of marriage and life's adventures together.
Karen enjoyed playing piano, singing, vacationing and Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers football. Over the years she and Terry were blessed to travel on Mexico mission trips, to Europe and to Japan each once and to a Rose Bowl and an Alamo Bowl to watch the Badgers win, but she especially enjoyed family vacations and visiting family and friends. She was a fun, loving, devoted, encouraging, prayer-warrior wife and mother, who loves Jesus very much, so we know she is comfortably home with Him now.
Karen passed away Friday, July 10, 2015, at St. Gertrude's Health and Rehabilitation Center in Shakopee, Minnesota, at the age of 63 years.
Blessed be her memory.
Karen is survived by her:
Husband, Terry Hayden of Hutchinson, MN;
Children, Ashley, Amy, Nathaniel and Peter Hayden, all of Hutchinson, MN;
Uncle and Aunt, Arlen and Jelayne Ewers of Huntley, IL;
Sisters-in-law, Chris Flamme of Ladysmith, WI,
Tammy Hayden Graf of Scottsdale, AZ;
Nephew, Jesse Flamme;
Nieces, Adel Flamme and Alison Kempen and her husband, Doug;
Cousins, Linda Ecklund, of Alta Loma, CA,
Wayne Cooper of Semmes, AL,
Janice Bay of Seneca, MO;
Many other relatives and friends.
Karen is preceded in death by her Parents Stanley and Vernadine (Ewers) Flamme; Brother, Eugene Flamme.