Karen Lee Dubea

Karen Lee Smith was born on January 14, 1963. She was the 2nd oldest child - followed very soon after by her twin sister Kim! Karen’s younger brother Mike was born one year later. Growing up, Karen enjoyed many of the same things that most kids in Indiana do - working, basketball, friends, and more. Karen played basketball through high school, and by all accounts, was pretty good! Karen and Kim were both good students, but they each excelled in different areas - Karen in English, writing, grammar; and Kim in mathematics. While it has never been confirmed, there is a rumor that on a few occasions Kim and Karen would wear the same outfit and swap classes on test days so they could help the other one in their particular strong subject!

Towards the end of high school, Karen applied to work at Kiddie Kollege, a ministry daycare at the Lafayette First Church of the Nazarene. While she was in her interview, the lady interviewing Karen decided that hiring Karen could help a few people - the daycare, Karen, the director, and also the director’s son, Lance, who happened to be the same age as Karen. Earlene Dubea hired Karen and promptly introduced Karen to her son, Lance. The rest, as they say, is history!

On October 15, 1983 Lance and Karen were married at the First Church of the Nazarene and began their new life together. Lance enlisted in the Air Force, Karen took college classes. Towards the end of Lance’s Air Force career, Karen gave birth to their first son, Tyler. Within a few months after Tyler being born, Lance and Karen moved back to Lafayette, Indiana where Lance enrolled at Purdue University. A couple of years later, Karen birthed another son, Landon.

Karen began to apply her education and started working at Arnett Clinic. To this day, former co-workers of Karen’s remember how her face would light up when Tyler and Landon would come see her at work, and run across the lobby to give their mom a hug! At some point in the 90’s, Karen transitioned to working at Anesthesiology Associates working in medical billing. Through Karen’s entire working career, she worked in medical billing, including at Unity Healthcare beginning in 2002.

At Tyler’s high school graduation, Karen had meticulous plans, ideas, and details for his graduation party. 3 years later, Landon’s graduation was much more of an afterthought. At the time, a lot of outside family members thought this was very odd and out of character for Karen. Around this same time, Karen began struggling with work. Lance and Karen chalked it up to stress, or just getting bored doing the same thing over and over again. Still, something wasn’t quite right.

When Karen first approached her doctor about some concerns, they told her it is standard to run a series of tests, including a psychological exam. Karen responded, “I’m not crazy, just forgetful!” She began another job at Rossville Family Dentistry, hoping that a change of scenery would be enough to snap her out of her funk. Karen struggled in ways she had never struggled before to learn and retain some of the most basic parts of the job. Finally, Karen knew that something was really wrong when she went to her gym in downtown Lafayette. She parked her car in the parking garage, but then she couldn’t find the door.

2 years after the first conversation with her doctor, Karen begin the examination process. This process took quite a while because of Karen’s age. Doctors wanted to make certain that they tested for every single thing, in order of most to least likely.

On November 10, 2011 - at the age of 48 - Karen was diagnosed with Younger Onset Alzheimer’s.

Lance and Karen moved to Alpharetta, GA so that Karen could be closer to her twin sister, Kim. Eventually Lance and Karen, and Kim and her husband, Rick built identical houses next to each other to make life easier for Karen. This was a tremendous help for Karen and her wellbeing. Karen got to spend time every day with her best friend and twin sister, while Kim was taking care of Karen. The family avoided a very common, and messy issue - having someone care for a person that is adamant they don't need help. This is due to the selflessness and sacrifices made by Lance, as well as Kim and Rick. In 2017, the publication Guidepost featured a story about Kim, Karen, Lance, and Rick and their inspiring story.

Friends and family from all over the country began to descend on Atlanta, Georgia each year for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s - headed by Karen’s twin sister, Kim Krejci. Team Karen was able to raise a ton of money each year, being a top performing team in Atlanta! In 2016, we thought we could do more. We began the KLD Foundation. In 2020, the name was changed to the KLD Alzheimer’s Foundation. Between Team Karen and the Foundation, more than $325,000 has been raised to defeat Alzheimer’s!

On March 18, 2022, 11 years after her diagnosis, Karen passed away surrounded by her husband and sons.

Karen Lee Dubea was our namesake. We are Karen Lee Dubea’s legacy.