KAREN SUE HEDGES

Karen Sue Hedges, age 65, of Fort Scott, passed away Thursday, August 31, 2006, at Mercy Health Center. She was born in Eureka, Kansas on March 1, 1941, the daughter of John Robert and Hilda Irene Burt Prather. She married Richard Hedges on December 27, 1964, in Eureka, Kansas. He survives of the home.

Karen graduated from Eureka High School, received her Bachelor's Degree from Emporia State University, and received her Master's and Education Specialist Degree both from Pittsburg State University. She began teaching in 1963, teaching speech and English. Then in 1981 she started teaching 7th through 12th grade gifted classes in the Fort Scott school system, she had also taught in Baldwin, Kansas, Columbus, Kansas, Hutchinson, Kansas, and at Fort Scott Community College.

She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Fort Scott, where she served as Education Director for several years and was a United Methodist Women officer, P.E.O., the Kansas Gifted and Talented Association, Delta Kappa Gamma Sorority, was a past member of the Mercy Hospital Advisory Board, Presbyterian Village Advisory Board, and was a Mercy Hospital volunteer.

In addition to her husband, Dick Hedges of the home, she is survived by two sons, Richard Lance Hedges and his wife Stacey of Garnett, Kansas and Robert Kyle Hedges and his wife Tina of Bolivar, Missouri; her mother, Hilda Prather of Fort Scott; and six grandchildren, Cale, Remington and Riley Hedges of Garnett, Kansas and Taylor, Kennedy and McKinley Hedges of Bolivar, Missouri. She was preceded in death by her father, John Robert Prather.

Funeral services for Karen will be at 2 p.m., Tuesday, September 5, 2006, at the First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Paul Babcock officiating. Burial will be in the Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7-8 p.m. Monday, September 4, at the Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to either the Fort Scott Community College Endowment Association or the First United Methodist Church. Donations may be sent to or left in the care of the Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home, 15 W. Wall St., P.O. Box 309, Fort Scott, KS 66701. Expressions of sympathy may be e-mailed to expressions@konantz-cheney.com.