Karen Clouse

Karen LaJeanne Bourne Clouse joyously went to be with Jesus on Saturday, September 26, 2020. She was born January 30, 1941 to Nile and Evelyn Bourne in Blair, Nebraska. She loved nursing and the Colorado mountains so she and husband Sam packed up and moved to the Spanish Peaks where they lived off the grid for many years before getting electricity up on the mountain. She co-founded and ran, along with her daughters, a home health and hospice service for rural residents of Huerfano and Las Animas counties for many years. Hospice nursing was her calling and she loved her patients well. One of the best decisions she ever made was to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and she was baptized in Lathrop Lake on August 12, 2015. The world is a better place for Karen having been in it: over her lifetime she served in many organizations to help women and the poor. One of her favorite areas of study was local history, and she spent many years cataloging artifacts, setting up displays and teaching the public at the Francisco Fort Museum in La Veta. She also became certified to assist with archeological digs and traveled around Colorado and New Mexico digging for artifacts and was chosen to participate in a Great Rift Valley dig (a famous Louis and Mary Leakey discovery site). Karen lived life “out loud,” loved adventure, reading, traveling, hiking, playing cards, houseboating, geology and off-color jokes. Everyone knew Karen was around by her loud and infectious laugh. She will always be remembered for inspiring her children, grandchildren and friends to be lifelong learners, to seek out adventure by trying things they’ve never tried before, and to have a blast doing it. She is preceded in death by her husband, Sam Clouse. She is survived by two daughters, Jo Ellen (Jim) Ripple of Penngrove, CA and Cheryl Ferguson of Colorado and four grandchildren; and sons Jon (Becky) Clouse, Shane (Sher) Clouse, and daughter Lynda (Tim) Kerstetter and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. God was merciful to Karen and she was active and visiting with neighbors up on her beloved mountain the night before she passed away. She will be fondly remembered and greatly missed. Karen will be buried on the mountain next to her husband with family and neighbors in attendance. A memorial honoring her memory will be scheduled at a later date. Karen loved to hear and to tell a good story, so if you have a story to tell involving Karen, the family would love to hear from you. A celebration of life service will be scheduled for October 24, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. at Karen's place. Call her daughter Cheryl for directions at 707-266-8448.