Karen Lea (Seal) Hooten: 1940-2023

Karen Lea Hooten – wife, mother, friend, artist ­– lost an unfair fight with cancer on November 19, 2023. She was only 83 years old.

To know Karen was to experience an unusual combination of strength, beauty, and kindness. Karen Seal met Bill Hooten while she was still in high school. He drove her to take her driving test, she spilled her nail polish on his dashboard, and the rest was history.

After high school, Karen could afford to attend Anderson College in Indiana for just one year. Upon her return to Oklahoma, she and Bill married at the Shartel Church of God in Oklahoma City and moved to Seminole to start a life together that lasted 64 years.

As a wife and mother, Karen was the gravitational center of the family. She was firm, fair, and loving. She built a house and home that was open and welcoming. For nearly five decades, the family's acreage outside of Seminole was a gathering place where there was always food on that big kitchen table for family, friends, and whoever else was hungry. She will forever be remembered for her seemingly effortless Sunday lunches and fluffy sourdough rolls.

Karen and Bill raised four sons around that kitchen table, who each became remarkable men. They all are leading meaningful and full lives, thanks in large part to the foundation she provided as a mother.

Karen was also a second mother to many. With a gentle spirit and sense of wit, she provided refuge for the weary and wisdom for the wayward. She drew on her faith for guidance and her own experience as an example whenever someone would come visit on her couch or call from miles away.

Once her sons had all left home, Karen began a personal renaissance. She returned to college in her 50s to complete an art degree. She took a job at the local Dillard's department store. She volunteered for two decades as a docent at the Sam Noble Museum at University of Oklahoma. And she began taking ceramics classes, which sparked a passion for pottery that lasted to the end of her life. Most of her friends and family have at least one piece of her work displayed in their homes.

And now with her life concluded, Karen's spirit and love will live on through her sons and their families: David and Teri (Seminole, Okla.); Michael and Heidi (Rochester, Minn.); Daniel Newman and Bruce Ostyn (Green Valley, Ariz.); and Jon and Jennifer (Los Alamos, Calif.). Her 7 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren will forever remember their grandma and her famous chocolate sheet cake.

The family will plan a memorial service in early 2024. Instead of sending flowers, please consider honoring her memory with a contribution of any amount to Crossings Community Church or the Sam Noble Museum at University of Oklahoma.

Before her passing, Karen made sense of it all by recognizing that her last breath on earth would be followed by her first breath in heaven. In her peaceful passing she received lasting comfort, with family by her side.

May her memory be a blessing for her husband, family, friends, and all who knew her.