Karen Garner

Karen Ann Westbrook Garner, 74, was escorted by angels to meet her Heavenly Father on Friday morning, January 28.  Karen was a 1965 graduate of Harmony Grove High School, she attended business school prior to beginning her 39-year career at Arkansas Health Center.  Shortly following her diagnosis in 2007, Karen founded and led a Parkinson's Support Group in Benton and was active in the Arkansas Chapter of the American Parkinson's Disease Association for several years.

The joys of her life were her family and friends, cooking (especially for others).  She loved hosting parties, working in her yard, singing in the church choir and enjoyed the many wonderful trips by land and sea.  She will be remembered most for her servant's heart, homemade cinnamon rolls every December, her love of chocolate ice cream and her red lipstick.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Faye Westbrook, special aunts and uncles and her precious cousins Sandy Wallace and Dixie Smith.  Celebrating her home-going are her husband Phillip Garner, daughter and son-in-law Amy and Joey Ellison, sister and brother-in-law Patsy and David Nalley, brother, Michael Westbrook, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Dennis and Ann Garner, her beloved
Westbrook cousins, treasured friends Flo Huthmaker, Sharron Cannon, Janie McAdoo, Debbie Rowan, Pam Balentine, Della Grace, Pat Foreman and Dalinda Greenman, her wonderful neighbors, dinner club friends and cherished Sunday School classmates at First Baptist Church, Benton.  The family would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank the remarkable staff at Mt. Carmel Community, Pleasant Hill Senior Services and Arkansas Hospice for Karen's exceptional care.

At Karen's request she will be cremated.  Also, at her request she donated her brain to the University of Miami Brain Bank for Parkinson's research.

Memorial service will be held from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Saturday, July 23, at Smith-Benton Funeral Home, 322 N. Market Street, Benton, Arkansas.  Tributes may be made at www.michaeljfox.org/donate.

Arrangements entrusted to Smith-Benton Funeral Home.  Online guestbook:  www.SmithFamilyCares.com.