John & Karen Werner

Dr. Karen Louise Svendsen Werner died Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Hillcrest in Waco. She was 65 years old.

Visitation with Karen’s family will be from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4, at Oakcrest Funeral Home in Waco, with a Recitation of the Holy Rosary immediately following at 7:00pm. Funeral mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, at St. Louis Catholic Church in Waco, with Father Timothy Vaverek officiating. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Waco.

Karen was born Sept. 26, 1958, in Peoria, Illinois, to Robert and Carol Svendsen. She was the oldest of eight siblings. Karen grew up on a small farm in Paris, Illinois, and graduated from Paris High School in 1976. She was active in Edgar County 4-H with a focus on horticulture, gardening and flower arranging. She was also a member of the Paris High School choir, jazz band and Tiger marching band flag corps and tennis team. As a senior, she was the Paris High School May Fete Queen.

She played piano and organ at the rural St. Aloysius Church her family attended.

Karen then graduated from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Spanish, in 1980. She earned her teaching certification in English from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in 1991; and a master’s degree in English with a minor in philosophy from Baylor in 2003.

In December 2012, Karen earned her Ph.D. in English from Baylor, with her areas of concentration being modern American literature, 19th century American literature and Renaissance period English literature.

Karen was a reporter at the Paris Beacon News in Paris, Illinois, from 1980 to 1981. She then worked at the Waco Tribune-Herald from 1981-1989. There, she wrote feature stories and covered, at various times, the agricultural, business, police, city council and school board beats.

In the fall of 1982, a young sportswriter at the Tribune-Herald named John Werner asked Karen for directions to Connally High School. A couple of weeks later, he asked her on a date, and they were married in November 1985. They celebrated their 38th anniversary in 2023.

Karen began her teaching career in the spring of 1991 as a student teacher at Waco High School. She also taught English in Hillsboro, China Spring and La Vega school districts; at Baylor University during graduate school; and at McLennan Community College in Waco.

Karen joined Waco High School as an English teacher in 2019 and taught there until she retired in June 2023.

Karen served as a volunteer at Habitat for Humanity; on the MCC Faculty Council; and as the MCC food pantry coordinator. She led faculty development and training days at MCC, and coordinated the English Graduate Student Association Conference for two years at Baylor. She was also an active member of St. Louis Catholic Church in Waco.

Karen and John were avid mountain hikers, and she also enjoyed reading and horticulture.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents and her brothers, Kurt Svendsen and Niels Svendsen.

She is survived by her sister, Inger Svendsen, of Pompano Beach, Florida; brother, Knud Svendsen, and wife, Stacy, of Castle Pines, Colorado; sister, Kirsten Van Hoy, and husband, Brian, of Trafalgar, Indiana; sister, Janna Beattie, and husband, Paul, of Edwardsville, Illinois; and sister, Heidi Somers, and husband, Daniel, of Indianapolis, Indiana; and many nieces and nephews who deeply loved Karen and John.

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John Harold Werner died Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Hillcrest in Waco. He was 67 years old.

Visitation with John’s family will be from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4, at OakCrest Funeral Home in Waco. Funeral mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, at St. Louis Catholic Church in Waco, with Father Timothy Vaverek officiating. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Waco.

John was born May 11, 1957, in Marlin, Texas, to Harold and Dottie Werner. He grew up in Copperas Cove, Texas, and graduated from Copperas Cove High School in 1975. He was a manager and statistician for the Cove football team and provided post-game reports for the team’s radio station, getting his first taste of sports journalism.

John graduated from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) in San Marcos, Texas, in 1979 with a degree in journalism and English. For two semesters, he was the sports editor of the University Star student newspaper where he won four regional and state writing awards. He worked at the Brazosport Facts newspaper for three years under sports editor Phil Moldenhauer. In August 1982, John joined the Waco Tribune-Herald, where he worked for longtime sports editor Dave Campbell, who became John’s friend and mentor. He also wrote for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine.

At the Tribune-Herald, John covered high school sports, the Dallas Cowboys and hundreds of Baylor University football, basketball, baseball and softball games. He covered nearly every Baylor football game during his last 15 years at the newspaper. He won several awards for sports writing and column writing during his time at the Tribune-Herald.

He fulfilled a dream when he covered the Baylor baseball team’s trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2005. He wrote about scandals in the men’s basketball program in 1994 and 2003, then was in Indianapolis when the Bears won a national championship in 2021.

Writing about athletes and telling their stories “has been one of the treasures of my job,” John wrote on June 17, 2023, in his farewell column for the Tribune-Herald after 41 years at the Paper.

A few weeks after starting at the Tribune-Herald in 1982, John asked Karen Svendsen, a young news reporter, for directions to Connally High School in Waco. She gave him very detailed driving directions. A week or so later, John asked her out on a date, and they got married in November 1985.

John and Karen were avid hikers, and John frequently wrote about their adventures for the Tribune-Herald, both before and after he retired.

John was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his sister, Carolyn Whitehead and her husband, Dan of Cleveland, Oklahoma; a cousin, Margaret Berger and her husband, George of Wills Point, Texas; and their daughters, Monica Cox of Forney, Texas, and Lisa Catravas of Wills Point, Texas.