Karen Grace Hopkins (nee Williams), 57 of Tulsa, Oklahoma passed away peacefully at Clarehouse on May 5, 2026 after a long battle with breast cancer.

Karen was born in Tucson, Arizona to Richard Dee and Marie Louise Williams on Sunday, August 4, 1968. She attended elementary school in Tucson until the middle of third grade when the family moved to the El Lago/Seabrook area southeast of Houston, Texas. Growing up there she graduated from Clear Lake High School in 1986. While attending high school she was a part of the concert choir, and the girls basketball and track & field teams. She also enjoyed taking art classes. In her junior year she won the district-wide logo design contest for Clear Creek Independent School District (CCISD). Her winning logo design was made into a patch and in the spring of 1985 was flown on board the Spacelab 3 Mission (STS-51B) of the Space Shuttle Challenger, commanded by astronaut Robert F. Overmyer (whose children attended CCISD schools). CCISD used her logo design for almost 20 years!

Karen attended Texas Tech University from 1986 to 1990 graduating with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Physiology and a minor in Art. While at Tech she loved participating on intramural basketball, volleyball, and softball teams as well as with a touring singing ensemble, and a mission trip to Jamaica through the Wesley Foundation, a student campus ministry. Upon graduating she did a year of internship with the Wesley Foundation leading Bible studies, mission trips to Guatemala and Mexico City, and organizing other student ministry events.

After completing her internship, Karen worked for a year at a physical therapy clinic in Lubbock, Texas assisting patients with their prescribed exercise programs. However, it didn’t take long before she was missing doing creative things and found a job in the in-house print shop doing graphic design at Trinity Church in Lubbock where she was attending. She was also a volunteer youth group leader there with the junior high kids and fell in love with another one of the youth group leaders, Michael Dennis Hopkins.

After dating for about a year, Karen and Mike were married on August 19, 1994. During their first year of marriage, they discovered they were expecting their first Treasure, Megan, and they also moved to the Houston area so Mike could attend graduate school. Over the years three more Treasures were born, sons Nathan, Nolan, and Stephen. In 2007 Mike and Karen moved their family to New Braunfels on the edge of the beautiful Texas hill country.

During that season of having and raising children Karen loved being a stay-at-home mom. She also participated in several extracurricular activities at one time or another including in-home childcare, having a direct sales jewelry business, being on a women’s indoor soccer team, and numerous volunteer church activities including writing and teaching a Bible study on the Armor of God and going on a mission trip to India. She was always doing some creative art project or another on the side, as well as writing about the faithfulness of God in her cancer update blog on the CaringBridge website in her later years.

In the fall of 2018, Karen went back to work teaching art classes to 6th through 12th grade students at Grace Preparatory Academy in New Braunfels. She loved her season of teaching, growing, and promoting the art program there, getting to know the students, and being a part of such an encouraging staff.

In the summer of 2024, after being in New Braunfels for 17 years, Karen and Mike moved up to the Tulsa, Oklahoma area to be near their first grandbabies and extended family.

Karen will be remembered for her love for her children and grandchildren (her treasures and grand treasures) and her desire for them to know God and be saved by Him, Her desire to serve and support her husband, Her love of God's word and desire to write/share insights of her study with family/friends and write a bible study and a poetry book (published this year on Amazon), Her desire to share various artistic expressions through inspiration which were given to family and friends, Her organizational skills with regard to managing the home and with teaching art students, and Her desire to be with family in order to celebrate their accomplishments and special days.

Karen was preceded in death by her mother Marie Louise Williams; and by her grandparents Dorothy and Monroe Drew, Jr. and Jack and Ella Ruth Williams.

Karen is survived by her husband, Michael Dennis; daughter Megan Caroline and husband Garrett Jensen; sons Nathan Michael, Nolan David, and Stephen Richard; grandkids Eliza Sigrid, Leif Edmund, and Eloise Ime; her father, Richard Dee Williams; mothers-in-law Linda Hopkins and Karen S. Hopkins; sister Janna Edwards and husband John; brother Brian Williams and wife Cyndee; brother-in-law David Hopkins and wife Brandi; as well as numerous nieces and nephews; aunts, uncles, and cousins; and a host of close friends.

The Hopkins family wishes to extend our sincerest thanks to all the doctors, and medical staff, and hospice care in both Texas and Oklahoma who were a part of Karen’s care. They were a huge blessing through such a hard season.

A memorial service will be held at Journey Bible Church which meets at Mingo Valley Christian School auditorium (located at 8304 S 107th E Ave, Tulsa 74133) on Saturday 5/23/26 from 11:00am to 12-12:30pm followed by a meal provided afterwards from 12:30-2:00pm. Formal Burial at Sunset Memorial Terrace in Farwell, TX will follow at a later date.

Because Karen’s and Mike’s apartment is small the family suggests, in lieu of plants and flowers, memorial donations to Karen’s favorite employer and place of ministry would be a huge blessing:

https://www.gpa-nb.org/

Grace Preparatory Academy of New Braunfels

1600 River Road, New Braunfels, TX 78132