Ms. Karen Thumm

KAREN'S OBITUARY AND MEMORIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Karen Ann Thumm was born just after midnight on January 1, 1954, the first baby born in NYS that year. Born by the sea in Far Rockaway, NY, Karen's family moved to Long Island when she was in her young teens. Karen died at her home in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra Nevada's on January 15, 2026.
Predeceased by her dear mother, Eleanor (nee Laveroni) Thumm and father, Richard Thumm, Karen is survived by her brother, Steven Thumm, his wife, Janine, her nieces and nephew, Stephanie, Alexandra and Austin, her loving aunt, Denise, and cousins, Kristin, Jeannie and Erin, and many friends.
Karen discovered her passion in medicine during her military service. She successfully worked her way through hospital corps school and was commissioned in the Medical Service Corps as an Ensign in 1993. She was the first woman in the Navy to make Chief Hospital Corpsman in under eight years. Dedicated to her sailors, patients, and medicine, Karen attended the prestigious Physician Assistant program at George Washington University. She earned the rank of Chief, then Lieutenant, with a final promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade. At the end of her military service she was to be promoted to Lieutenant Commander, but decided it was time to retire, instead. She received a number of service medals and meritorious commendations. She mentored many Sailors and Marines during her honorable career that brought her to Virginia, Guam, Texas, a duty station on board ship, and finally California, where she permanently settled.
Karen loved music and the mountains. She led many hiking groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, often called upon to use her skills to assist an injured hiker. Karen also had a lifelong passion for music and playing her acoustic guitar. Filled with compassion, she was known to prepare a satchel of sandwiches and drive around her Bay Area community feeding those in need.
Karen loved working in her vegetable garden and walking among her apple trees with her beloved dog, Kali. Some received gifts of her delicious walnuts. Far away friends and family wondered about her rural life in Mountain Ranch, CA, population 223. She loved her home and property, her neighbors and the pensive quietude of her life. She would have it no other way.
Karen left this earthly life after a brief illness, at home in her bed where she belonged.
"One cannot discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
Andre Gide, French author and Nobel laureate
A fellow Naval officer and shipmate wrote: "Karen, you are relieved from the watch. You will be missed, shipmate, but we now carry the watch for you."
A ZOOM memorial will be held on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 4pm Eastern. You are encouraged to attend and share a memory, a story, a reading, a prayer, a song, whatever inspires you. LINK, BELOW.
The memorial will be officiated and facilitated by Pastor Patti Eaton, Karen's childhood chum. Patti received her call into the ministry after retirement from a 45 year career as a nurse. She is a wife, a mother of two adult children and a grandmother to three little humans. Patti spreads her God-given, love and talents to them and to her church family at Zion Lutheran Church in Hamilton, OH. They met in Far Rockaway in 1960 and reconnected when Patti attended seminary in Berkeley, CA three years ago.
ZOOM LINK, below:
Topic: CELEBRATION OF KAREN's LIFE Zoom Meeting
Time: Mar 1, 2026 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81895619045?pwd=kEUZPHl4BWlVnm0Hdy1oGbbaCIrXGZ.1
Meeting ID: 818 9561 9045
Passcode: 843064
One tap mobile
+16469313860,,81895619045#,,,,*843064# US
+16468769923,,81895619045#,,,,*843064# US (New York)
Online condolences can be made at https://www.dieboldfuneral.com/. Funeral arrangements were trusted to San Andreas Memorial Chapel, 254 West St. Charles PO Box 328 San Andreas, CA 95249, (209) 754-3361.