Karen Kaiser, 70, of Hot Springs, South Dakota, passed away on Tuesday, August 20th, 2024.  Karen was born on March 12th,1954 to Lester (Red) Kaiser and Dorothy Kaiser in Hot Springs, South Dakota.  Karen was preceded in death by her father, Lester (Red) Kaiser.

When hired as a paralegal in Tucson, Arizona, Karen read all of the collection laws in one night and started work the next day.  She was hard-working and diligent, and when given assignments, she did them quickly and she did them right the first time.  Over the years, Karen trained a few dozen attorneys, paralegals, and others on court procedures for collections and litigation.  Her Tucson legal community greatly appreciated her knowledge and dependability.

Karen often gave flowers from her Arizona garden as gifts for friends and coworkers.  She shared her tasty baked goodies and left endearing cards and homemade gifts.  This past spring, Karen planted a multitude of colorful tiger lilies at her and Dorothy's home in Hot Springs which continue to bloom and flourish.

Her love for nature, animals, and the mountains (Arizona, South Dakota, Alaska, Colorado, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming), brought out her free and happy spirit.  She adored horses and attended Lipizzaner shows.  She greatly appreciated Native American design and was proud of her home state of South Dakota.  Karen proudly displayed her Black Hills Gold jewelry and named her well-loved Rottweiler, Dakota.

Karen was a huge fan of the musical production of Les Misérables and wore a lovely, midnight-blue gown to the show.  She talked about it for weeks and listened to the music for years.  She also enjoyed ballet and took lessons for a few years in her 30's.

Karen traveled to Europe twice, once with a friend's devoutly religious family.  Karen loved the classical art in the public streets and in the museums.  She mostly enjoyed Scotland and Italy.

Karen had an amazing, creative touch and loved quilting, gardening, cooking, baking, hosting, and putting smiles of pleasure on faces.  Her house always felt like home.  She worked second jobs at fabric stores to keep up with her great love of design and quilting, and also taught quilting classes.  She would wake up early to quilt for hours before she left for the office. Her friends will never forget the comedic evening helping her move an entire room of fabric bolts downstairs and into a moving van.  Friends and family, especially nieces and nephews, blessed her life and were such fun to her.  Karen filled their closets with exquisitely designed and beautifully made quilts.

After her father's passing, Karen began to make life choices preparing to care for her mother when the need arose years later.  She returned to South Dakota and was a natural caregiver and truly enjoyed her mother's company, always having a positive, helpful, and no-nonsense attitude.

Karen was fearless, brave, independent, strong-willed, and stubborn.  She had an enormous heart and was generous, mischievous, loyal, and genuine.  She valued honesty and integrity above everything.  Family and friends have treasure troves of great memories, lessons, laughs, quilts, flowers, and food and all that she gave to them and left in their hearts.

Karen leaves to cherish her precious memories:   her mother, Dorothy Kaiser, her brother, Benjamin Kaiser, her niece and nephews, Jessica Freeman (Kaiser), Tobias Kaiser, Andrew Kaiser, Austin McCracken, great nephews, and nieces, Kyler Freeman, Taigen Freeman, Ayden Kaiser, Rowan Kaiser, Nova Kaiser, Viktor Kaiser, and Emily Kaiser, as well as a host of dear family, friends and neighbors.

Memorial services will be held 10:30 a.m., Friday, August 30, 2024, at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Hot Springs, SD.