Karen Thalin, whose many friends knew and loved her as KT, passed away peacefully on March 31, after a valiant fight against cancer. Her friend and caregiver Carol Sevick was at her side. Karen was in the excellent care of hospice nurses at Grace Cottage Hospital, Townshend, VT.

Karen was born in 1959, the only child of Charlotte (Ernst) and Richard Thalin of Paxton, MA. She graduated from Wachusett Regional High School in 1977 and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. She moved to Westminster West, VT in 1993 and then to Saxtons River, VT in 1998. She had a successful career as an independent accounting manager for local businesses, artists and non-profits.

Karen is predeceased by her mother Charlotte in 2020 and her father Richard in 1997. Surviving immediate family members include her uncle Ronald Ernst of Southbridge, MA and her cousins Carlene (Conant) McKinstry of Northboro, MA, Melinda (Ernst) Fournier of Nantucket, MA, and Thomas, Michael and Jeffrey Ernst, all of Connecticut. She is also survived by her childhood friend Pamela Burtt Brunelle of Rutland, MA.

KT had the gift of making and keeping lifelong friends who delighted in her and relied on her. She had a beautiful singing voice and was a vivid member of the Worcester Concert Choir and later the River Singers and Hallowell in Vermont. She was good company and a good neighbor. She was funny, kind, independent and full of life.

Most of all, she was caring. She fixed things; she helped; she stood up for and stood by her friends and was devoted to her parents. She will be best remembered for her lifelong love for animals, especially her cats, the crowd of birds at her feeders, swarms of hummingbirds arguing over nectar and the hundreds of Monarch butterflies she hand-raised and released over the milkweed and flower meadow she meticulously cared for.

A memorial gathering will be held at Chivers Center on the Vermont Academy campus, Saxtons River, VT on Saturday, April 30 at 1PM.

There will be a memorial service on Saturday, June 11 for Karen and her mother, Charlotte, in Worcester, MA followed by their interment in Paxton, MA. Details will be forthcoming.

Donations in Karen’s memory may be sent to the Windham Humane Society in Brattleboro, VT.