Obituary of Karen Kaminski

Daughter, sister, aunt and friend Karen Sue Kaminski age 64, passed away quietly at home in Puyallup, WA on May 5, 2020 after a short illness.  She was born December 7, 1955 to MSgt Emiljan Kaminski and Irene Heck Kaminski in Fort Hood, Texas.  She was the oldest of 4 girls and spent the first years of her life living in Italy, Germany, California and Utah as part of a military family which gave her a passion for travel.

Karen graduated in 1974 from Kaiserslautern American High School in Germany.  She briefly lived in Utah before moving to Texas where she completed her education earning a Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy from UTMB, Galveston and her MA in Behavioral Science from University of Houston.  She spent the rest of her career as an Occupational Therapist where she thoroughly enjoyed working with her patients and received many accolades for the great job she did.  She worked with children at Shriners Burn Center, as well as UTMB in Galveston, Texas before joining the Army in 1991.  She spent 8 years travelling the world to places like Fitzsimons, CO, Fort Ord, CA, Tripler, HI and Seoul, Korea.  She left the army as a Captain and moved to Puyallup, WA to work at Good Samaritan Hospital.  She was called back to active duty during the Iraq War and spent 2 years at Brook Army Hospital in Texas where she was promoted to Major.  Once back in WA, she finished her career at Madigan Army Hospital in Tacoma, where she was a hand specialist and had recently retired.

Throughout her travels, Karen made friends wherever she went and maintained those friendships throughout the years – they became family to her and she will be missed by all.  She loved to travel, visit local farmers’ markets and art fairs, hiking, being outdoors, getting together with friends and walking her dogs. 

She was preceded in death by her parents.  She is survived by her sisters Mary Kaminski (Issaquah, WA), Julia Kaminski Ramirez (High Springs, FL), Debbie Kaminski Richardson (Layton, UT) and 8 nieces and nephews – Adam Ramirez,  Caryn Ramirez Nichol, Lucas Ramirez, Kenton Richardson, Braden Richardson, Kaitlyn Richardson, Taylor Kaminski and Emilee Kaminski whom she fondly called the “twins”.  She was also very close to “stepson” Noah Willis who lived with her for a time. 

Karen was an avid dog lover and had many dogs throughout her lifetime – they were her “kids” and Bailey and Skylar will miss her. 

At this time, we will not be having a memorial service but hope to have a celebration of her life in the future.  If you would like to honor Karen’s memory, we ask that you donate in her name to your favorite pet charity or your local Humane Society.

Those we LOVE don’t go away they walk beside us every day.