Well-read world traveler connected well with people
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Karen J. Durham’s life celebration at the end of this month should be a real show, just as she would have liked it.
The Mt. Lebanon woman died Nov. 23 while sleeping at home, possibly from a heart attack. She was 71. Her son, Glenn P. Durham of Plum, described her as a “gem of a Pittsburgher,” which fits, in that she was multifaceted and sharp, at work and at play.
She was born Karen Schweibinz in HomewoodBrushton. She graduated from St. Anselm High School in Swissvale in 1964, then received a bachelor’s degree in political science at Duquesne University and a master’s in social work from the University of Pittsburgh.
Her first of many social work jobs was at what was then Allegheny County Children and Youth Services, some of whose clients she would bring home for dinner in Garden City.
She and Paul Durham married in 1970 but later divorced. But for most of her life she stayed friends with him, said her son, who noted that his father’s strong interest in singing a cappella started when she sent him, as she was wont to do, a clipping about it.
“She helped people find things that literally changed their lives,” he said. “It’s cool.”
Shetouched many people, whether she was visiting them or entertaining them. She, too, was a singer and a director and an actress in local theater and movies, with roles including Mae West in a one-woman show that she wrote, produced and performed for years for area seniors.
She was, like that famous actress, independent and strong. She also played the no-nonsense Kay the waitress in the diner on the Cornerstone TeleVision show “His Place.”
She went to enough movies that she could predict all the Academy Awards. She also was deeply into music, whether it was her son’s rock band or Metallica, classical or bluegrass.
She read, sometimes five books at once, took notes and told others about them. She read newspapers and magazines and frequently clipped out articles and mailedthem to people.
She ran, winning in her age bracket several times in the Great Race, and was always keen on holistic health. Her son notes, “She was an amazing contest winner” of money, tickets, vacations.
She traveled, as far away as Hong Kong and Japan, but she was part of the fabric of Pittsburgh, belonging to and volunteering at numerous museums and organizations, as disparate as the Jewish Community Center and the Teutonia Mannerchor.
That brings a chuckle from her son, who said, “My mom was just open to everything and everybody,” which is how he, his father and friends plan to celebrate her.
Her longtime friend Norm Koehler of Duquesne admired her for a common thread that linked her many interests, at work and not: “Karen had a real strong association with the underdog, with people who were sort of left out.”
In addition to her son and his two daughters, Ms. Durham is survived by her siblings: James of San Diego; Joann of Pittsburgh’s Oakland section and Norma Schweibinz of Pittsburgh.
A memorial service will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon at 11 a.m. Dec. 30, followed at 2:30 p.m. by the life celebration at Teutonia Mannerchor, 857 Phineas St., North Side.