Karen Lee Newman Rood, 76, died June 30, 2018, at Premier Estates Assisted Living in North Platte, surrounded by her family and Angels on Earth.
She was born on Jan. 6, 1942, at Moorehouse Hospital in Benkelman in Dundy County to Alvin Purl Newman and Ruth Rose Bunning Newman. She was the oldest of three children. At the age of 3½, the family moved to the mountains near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she enjoyed riding horses, hunting rattlesnakes with her brother and playing. Some of her fondest memories of this period of her life were being driven to school by team and wagon, watching her dad ride in rodeos and attending Sunday services at a little log church with picnics to follow at Yellowstone National Park. At the age of 10, the family returned to McCook, and it was here that she attended junior high and high school.
In 1957, she met and married Robert Duane Wyman and to this union five children were born. They lived in the south central Nebraska area until the children grew, and in 1976, they divorced.
For most of her adult life, she worked in the medical field caring for others. In 1991, she graduated from Mid-Plains Community College with her licensed practical nursing degree and enjoyed being a caregiver until the age of 72. If everyone who Karen touched reached out to the person on either side, the circle would be big enough to go around the world.
In 1991, she moved to Broken Bow. She met and married Richard Rood in 1997, and they divorced in 1999. In 2014, she moved to North Platte to be closer to family due to failing health.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard Rood of Broken Bow; her father, Alvin Purl Newman of Funk; her mother, Ruth Rose (Bunning) of Broken Bow; a special mother, Velma Marie Newman of Commerce City, Colorado; a brother, James Alvin Newman of Stamford; a sister, Rita Jean Looney of Atlanta; a sister-in-law, Karen Rae Newman of Stamford; a brother-in-law, Kirk Looney of Atlanta; daughters-in-law, Donna Wyman of Lexington and Phyllis Wyman of Whitewater, Kansas; and a granddaughter, Angie Schade of Kearney.
She is survived by three sons, Craig Wyman of Gothenburg; Randy Wyman of Whitewater, Kansas, and Todd Wyman of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho; two daughters, Nancy (Roger) Robinson of North Platte and Cindy Burg of Lincoln; 11 grandchildren; many great-grandchildren; sisters, Velva (Les) Hall of Broomfield, Colorado, Carolyn Webb of Livingston, Texas, and Carol (Darrell) Goodner of Broken Bow; brothers, Timothy Parker of Albion, David Parker of North Platte and Steve Parker of Lincoln; and many nieces, nephews and friends.
Online condolences may be shared at carpentermemorial.com.
Services will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 7, at Carpenter Memorial Chapel with Chaplain Richard Karr officiating. Burial will be at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Benkelman Cemetery. Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, July 6, at Carpenter Memorial Chapel, which is in charge of arrangements.