Karen Lorraine Baxter

Karen Lorraine Richenberg Baxter passed away at Wesley Medical Center, Wichita KS on April 5, 2025. She went to be with her lord at the age of 84. After a two-year battle with Leukemia, she went down continuing to fight like the warrior she was. Karen was born during a heavy snowstorm in a farmhouse in Elba, New York on February 6, 1941, to parents Delia Brown and Paul Richenberg Sr. She was the youngest of five siblings with four older brothers. She has always had an adventurous spirit. When she was twelve, she purchased her first horse with her babysitting money. This began her lifelong love for horses. Karen competed in barrel racing, trick riding and all kinds of other events.

In 1962 she married her first husband, Robert Hartman. The first thirteen years they backpacked the Colorado Rockies and Grand Canyon. Karen then found a love for racing Motocross. She had a trademark of having a flower on her helmet as she raced coed sometimes and the men couldn’t stand being beaten by a female when they saw the flower pass them. In 1976 Karen raced in the Women’s Motocross Nationals as an expert at San Dunes, California. She was the oldest women in the race. She was beaten by an eighteen-year-old. Although she placed eighth racing a 250-cc Maico bike.

After moving to Kansas, Karen worked at Wesley Hospital in the Special Hematology Lab. She worked mostly in research and co-authored and published a research article in the Laboratory Medicine journal in 1971. Karen then became a stay-at-home mother after son Erick was born on November 13,1975 and then added daughter Kerry who was born on August 18,1977. She continued to race motorcross often stopping between races to go nurse Erick.

Karen met her second husband Joe Baxter, on a racquetball court playing competitive doubles. They were a very active couple playing racquetball and tennis competitively. They also ran six miles a day. Joe unfortunately was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2003. He passed two years later in 2005.

Karen graduated High school in a class of thirty-three in 1959. She attended University of Buffalo in New York and then went to AlfredTechnical Institute with a degree in Medical Technology. Karen worked in Medical Technology at Wesley for fifteen years and took more classes at Wichita State University. She began training classes in regulation and transport of hazardous materials. In 1992 she started working at Raytheon Aircraft in Environmental Engineering. She retired from Raytheon in 2007 after fifteen years of service. Retirement did not last long. She then started her own consulting business for the next eight years until 2015.

In 2015 when Karen was seventy-three years old, she purchased a quarter horse, Nala and traveled with her horse and dog Lucky throughout the US.

In 2019 at the age of seventy-nine she started playing Granny Basketball. She was the Captain of the ICT AeroBelles. Karen went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to play three on three basketball in the National Granny Basketball in May 2022. The sisterhood of the grannies was something Karen loved and will never lose. She was their fearless leader.

On October 2023 she was diagnosed with a type of Chronic Leukemia (CMML). She did not let this disease slow her down. She told her oncologist several times that she was not your typical 84-year-old grandma. She has always marched to her own drummer and her philosophy for an active life includes the following: First you can’t control when you are born or when you check out so do not put a finish line on your life. Create a sense of purpose, keep meeting new people and seeking new experiences and passions. Be a participant in your life, understand who you are, be yourself and remember getting older does not have to be a “dark” place. Last the great outdoors is a “God” experience and life has no limits unless you create them.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents Delia and Paul Richenberg, her four brothers and her husband Joe Baxter. She is survived by her son Erick Hartman and wife Kari. Grandsons Hank and Jack. Her daughter Kerry Harris and husband Nick. Granddaughters Avery, Kelsi, Kailey and Great Granddaughter Karter.

A memorial gathering will be on May 3. 2025 at 1100 at Karen’s homestead. Contact and address on social media.