Karen Ann Eaton, age 74 of Kuttawa, died at 4:49 am. Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Baptist Health in Paducah. Karen was a member of Kuttawa First Baptist Church. She graduated from Lyon County High School in 1969. She attended Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, and then transferred to Murray State University in Murray, KY. She eventually earned her accounting degree, putting it to good use in her long and varied career.
Karen lived and worked in Kentucky, South Korea, Georgia, Oregon, Wisconsin and Texas. Her career choices took her from Hilltop Nursing Home in Kuttawa, KY where she worked as an aide for her grandmother, Rowena Dunn, to a local favorite, The Diamond Restaurant in Lake City, KY. She taught English in South Korea, then utilized her artistic skills at Sun River Graphics in Oregon, then made a career change to the trucking industry, working in both Wisconsin and Texas. She transferred her driving and logistics skills to the Katy Independent School District in Katy, TX where she spent over 20 years driving school children, training drivers, competing in bus rodeos, and eventually managing the logistics of transporting over 20,000 school children safely to and from school each day. Karen retired from the Katy Independent School District as the Assistant Director of Transportation and then relocated with her husband, Gene, to Kuttawa.
Karen was bold, artistic, organized and very much lived life on her own terms. She loved her house, her family, her animals, and she will surely be missed by all. Karen was preceded in death by her husband Edwin Eugene Eaton on December 7, 2021 and her father Kenneth E. Dunn in 2004 grandparents Shelley and Rowena Hayden Dunn, and Joe E. and Allie Grubbs Scott.
Survivors include one son, Jason Humphrey of DeWitt, Virginia, her mother, Katherine Scott Dunn of Kuttawa, KY, 5 grandchildren, Katrina N. LoFaso, Tylon R. Humphrey, Gabrielle Humphrey, Francis Dunne Humphrey, Alessandra Dunne Humphrey, and one great-grandchild, Greyson LoFaso. three brothers, Kyle H. Dunn of Eddyville, KY, Kim D. Dunn of Chiefland, FL, Kirk E. Dunn of Silverdale, WA, and one sister, Kathy S. Dunn McPhall of Smithville, TN, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
Graveside memorial services will be held at 1:00 pm Thursday, February 26, 2026, at Kuttawa Cemetery with Rev. Jimmy Jones officiating, with burial to follow. Dunn’s Funeral Home in Eddyville is in charge of the arrangements.
