Karen Lee Tippen, daughter of the late Elmore Keely “E.K.” Cunningham and Reba Bowden Cunningham, was born on May 20, 1945, in Poplar Bluff, Missouri and departed this life on August 9, 2021, at the Cypress Point Skilled Nursing Center in Dexter, Missouri at the age of 76.

Mrs. Tippen was a retired band and choir director at Parma Schools and had also worked as a secretary at D and J Plumbing. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Dexter where she had served the church through her gift of music and playing the piano. She had also been a member of the Dexter Altrusa Club and was a resident of Dexter.

She was united in marriage to Donald Tippen on September 10, 1987, in Dexter, Missouri. Mr. Tippen preceded her in death on June 7, 2010.

She is survived by two daughters, Jamie Whitaker and husband Joey of Elkhart, Indiana and Dawn Dowdy and husband Ryan of Dexter, Missouri; by four grandchildren, Chad Grubbs, Amanda Turlin, Jessica Lesley, and Michaela Shafer; and by five great-grandchildren, Liam Shafer, Levi Shafer, Lillian Elliott, Lukah Johnson and Izzy Brooks.

Visitation will be conducted on Thursday, August 12, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. in the Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter. Funeral services will then be conducted on Thursday, August 12, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. in the Mathis Funeral Chapel in Dexter. Interment will follow at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield, Missouri.

Memorials may be made to 18 Fore Life, c/o Scott Kruse, 705 Laurie Circle, Dexter, Missouri 63841.

Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter is assisting with arrangements.