Mary Carman Keene

Mary Carman Keene passed away on June 14, 2025. She lived a joyous and loving life for 86 years. Carman has now joined her husband Sam Keene who passed away on November 15, 2015. Carman was born August 8, 1938, in Atchison, Kansas to Dr. and Mrs. Ira R. Morrison. She is preceded in death by her husband, two siblings, Donald Peter Morrison and Roberta Irene King, her parents, and grandson, Gideon Peter Stairs. Carman met her husband Sam Keene when they were in the fifth grade. They were married after her second year of college at Emporia State Teacher’s College. They enjoyed a marriage of clear and compelling love for 58 years. They have now been reunited. Carman and Sam were the parents of 3 daughters, bringing fabulous and fantastic grandchildren, their spouses, and great grandchildren into the family. For 30 years they lived and raised their family in the Colorado Mountains, Coal Creek Canyon, (8,800 feet in elevation filled with beauty and pine trees.) After leaving Colorado in 1992, they moved to a small and glorious lake in Kansas, Lake Wabaunsee, for 15 years. They returned to Colorado in their retirement to a lovely little home in Arvada in 2007. During Carman’s life she was proud to receive several awards: - Nederland High School “Mother of the Year”, 1980. - Coors Brewery YMCA’s National Woman of Achievement, “Colorado Business Woman of the Year, 1984. - Keith Vair awarded her the Carpe Diem Award in recognition of her glorious and fearless jump from a terrifying height into the threatening waters of the pool at the Lake of the Ozarks, 2004. - Carman loved the show Survivor, and her family awarded her their own Survivor Winner Award for Season 23, 2011, and Season 48, 2025 among others. Carman loved most being a wife and mother. She was playful, had a joyful zest for living, was a hard worker and a woman who loved the Lord with all of her heart, soul, and might. She will be missed terribly by her family. Daughters: Cindy (Keith) Vair, Stevie (Dean) Stairs. Grandchildren: Jamie (Aaron) Betcher, Jerra Matthew, (Doug Ball), Nikki Vair, Ally Vair, Jasmine Stairs, Riley (Melanie) Stairs, Courtney (Caleb) Grove, Victor Stairs, Bonny (Joe) Coffin, Georgia Stairs, Elizabeth (Trevor) Whitney, Charlotte (Grady) Stephens, and Sam Stairs. Great Grandchildren: Scout and Ryder Betcher, Seeley and Aubrey Stairs, Lydia, Elsie, Prisca and Felicity Grove, Violet and Selah Whitney, and Hannah Stephens. Celebration of a Joyful Life Service will be at 10:00 on Saturday June 28, 2025 at the Fairmount Bible Church: 15100 West 48th Avenue, Golden, Colorado. Instead of flowers or gifts, Carman would hope that you would please generously give an unexpected and unsolicited act of kindness to someone. Or if you would rather, memorial contributions may be made to Gideons’ International, Gideons.org