Karen Tarantine

Karen Lee Tarantine was born March 20, 1949 in Wellsville NY, the daughter of Modestino (Mote) and Dorothy Niswonger Tarantine. She attended Immaculate Conception School for grades K-8 and Wellsville High School 9-12, graduating in June 1967.
She attended SUNY Brockport graduating in 1971 with a degree in Teaching English. She later took business courses at Alfred University and worked on an MBA at St Bonaventure and then Wilkes University when she moved to PA.
Karen worked at CE Air Preheater from 1972 to 1987, at CE Sprout Bauer in Muncy, PA from 1987-1988 and 1991-1992. In between she was Materials Manager at CE Sprout Bauer in Brantford Ontario Canada. She worked at Anchor Darling Valve in Williamsport Pa. from 1991 to 1994 and Berwick Industries in Berwick Pa. from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, she moved to Ithaca NY and started working at Mettler-Toledo Hi-Speed. She left there in 2012 as a Supplier Manager.
Karen loved her family and marveled at their closeness as she grew up. Until she went to college she didn't really understand that not all families spent every holiday together. As an adult she appreciated growing up in a town and in an era when houses and cars could be left unlocked and it was safe to accept a ride when one was offered. She thought that Wellsville was a great town to grow up in.
Family was an important part of Karen's life. She was honored beyond words when her niece was born and named Karen Margaret. She loved the family picnics her sister started and went to all of them. After moving to Ithaca, Karen and Barb became closer than they had ever been and she often told her friends that she had won the sister lottery.
She was always proud of her friends from her closest friends in high school and college to the newest friends she made in Ithaca. She was thrilled that she and her college roommates have stayed so very close since they graduated in 1971. They would get together for a "Maxon St." reunion every year. They were always there when she started having heart problems. If she was in a hospital in Rochester they would visit and they would call when they couldn't visit. She made some great friends in Ithaca and they helped her through some of the hard times. They did all kinds of things for her like mowing, shoveling, carrying heavy loads and in her mind the most important thing making sure her cats were taken care of when she was away.
Karen started horseback riding when she was 10. It was a friend's birthday and they went to a farm and rented ponies for an hour. That started a lifelong obsession. During high school she took hunter/jumper lessons at Brentwood Camp and in the summer she and her friends would rent horses for an hour or for a whole day ($3.50) at a farm in Andover. Over the years Karen took many riding lessons and participated in riding clinics and finally fell in love with dressage. At 35 she finally purchased her own horse "Shane's Foxy Lady" and Lady moved everywhere that Karen did. She had Lady until the spring of 2010 when one sunny morning she laid down in the field and peacefully died at the age of 33.
Karen passion wasn't just for horses but for all animals. She often said she should have grown up on Noah's Ark. Starting in 2000 she volunteered at the Tompkins County SPCA. There she made many friends two and four legged ones. She worked with the dogs and learned about behavior modification and positive reinforcement and just plain loving them and having fun. Over time she was given three different awards for her volunteer work.
Karen was also dedicated to her job. She stopped working because she could no longer give the 110% that had always been so easy for her in the past. She held a number of different positions over the years but loved her last job as a Supplier Manager at Mettler-Toledo Hi-Speed. She felt that over the years she had been blessed with good bosses who all taught her something.
Karen was predeceased by her mother and father and is survived by a sister, Barbara Tarantine Hulbert, a niece Karen (Matt) Schindler and three great-nephews Jacob, Luke and David. She found much joy in the escapades of the boys and loved to have them visit although she often wondered how anyone could keep up with them. It was her goal to be around to give them their Christmas gifts this year and that was a joyful day as she picked the gifts just right.
Karen will be glad to be reunited with her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who went before her and she promises to keep all of you in her thoughts and prayers and asked that you do the same for her.
She'll be pleased if any donations you'd like to make went to Fr. Bill Brown Mission Fund, PO Box 464, Wellsville, NY 14895 (Fr, Brown has always been a close friend of the Tarantine family and we are pleased to support his missionary work) , the Tompkins County SPCA, or your local animal rescue group.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Saturday January 24, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Church. Burial at St. Mary's Cemetery, Belmont, NY will take place in July when many extended family members will be in that area. Bangs Funeral Home will be in charge of arrangements.