Leona (Lee) Karr

Author, Educator and Renegade, Lee Karr passed away on March 24,2023, after a long life filled with adventures. Lee was born in Trinidad, Colorado on November 3, 1925, to Clarence and Nona Crabtree. Dancing, horseback riding and baton twirling filled her childhood. She graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor's Degree in English. During her time at CU, she met and married Marshall Karr on April 6, 1947. Their life was briefly interrupted when Lee contracted polio in 1951. Though the outcome was paraplegia, Lee and Marshall continued to grow their family and found creative ways for Lee to take care of herself and her children from a wheelchair. Together they raised four children. In the 1960s, having settled in Durango, Lee became an active member of “the Renegades”, a group whose tireless efforts resulted in handicapped access to many buildings in town. Used book sales and other fundraising efforts were successful at applying pressure to City Leaders to begin to recognize the needs of the disabled in their community. Lee’s career as a well-respected educator began in Durango. Lee continued her education and graduated with a Master's Degree in Education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1970. Greeley was the next location for her work as an educator specializing in teaching remedial reading. The number of lives impacted by her teaching is significant. Through the years Lee and Marshall traveled and she gathered ideas for stories, articles and novels. Always a writer, Lee was published first in newspapers and magazines, and then as an author of mystery, gothic, and romantic suspense novels. Lee retired from teaching in 1976 and began to write full-time from their new home in Northglenn, Colorado. She had forty-nine novels published from 1980 to 2007, before she retired from writing at the age of 82. Lee was an important member of the non-profit Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers encouraging and supporting writers seeking publication in commercial fiction, including hosting “critique groups” in her home. Marshall passed away in 1994, and Lee lived alone for a few years. Lucky in life and in love, she met Michael (Milton) Akers in a church discussion group. They were married in 1998. She was left alone a second time in 2017 with his passing. She found comfort in her puppy, watering flowers and watching wildlife in her yard. The last few years of Lee’s life were spent under the care of the dedicated team at Good Samaritan Village in Fort Collins, with her older daughter, Coleen’s loving support and frequent visits. Donations to Good Samaritan Village Garden Fund, 508 W. Trilby Road, Fort Collins, CO 80525, are requested in lieu of flowers or gifts.

Leona (Lee) Karr

March 24, 2023