Karin May Dowdy was born August 31, 1942, in Sayre Oklahoma to Hubert and Fay Carmichael, as an only child. She married Dale Dowdy on October 2, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Karin and Dale have one son, Austin Dowdy and one grandson, Lee Dowdy. She is survived by Dale, Austin, and Lee, along with Dale’s brother Kent Dowdy and sister Cindy Daunis and their children (Ashley, Drew, and Trey).
At the age of 12, Karin and her parents moved from Sayre to Anaheim, California, living directly across from Disneyland. She marveled at being able to see, from her front yard, the Disneyland fireworks every night. Beginning at age 5, she was trained to be a concert pianist, a passion that lasted for her entire life. Raised in the Baptist Church, she played the piano for church services. She also played the piano for the Anaheim High School Choral group. In high school, she played the piano with the Anaheim Symphony Orchestra.
She graduated from Oklahoma University majoring in English (Dean’s Honor Roll and Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society). She then taught English and Spanish in Junior and High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Kent, Washington; Sunnyvale, California; and Cupertino, California. She also took graduate level courses at Oklahoma University, San Jose State University, Santa Clara University, and the University of Guadalajara (Mexico). After 10 years in teaching, she became a real estate agent in the south San Francisco Bay Area.
In 1966 about a year after getting married, Karin and Dale moved to Kent, Washington staying for a bit over a year, then they moved to Santa Clara, California, in “Silicon Valley”. When Dale and Karin married, in response to his strong interest in sports, she told him, “All I do is read books and play the piano”. Surprisingly and eagerly, she then participated in sport after sport - first tennis, then snow skiing, then water skiing, then volleyball and finally Cowboy Action Shooting. Oh, and she became an able boat captain much later.
She became an A-level tennis player at De Anza swim and racquet club and at Saratoga swim and racquet club. Soon after that, she became a very strong snow skier and water skier. Volleyball fell by the wayside after she broke fingers on two different occasions. She became fearful that more broken fingers would hurt her piano playing. One other major activity – raising and showing Airedale Terriers, resulting in several Show Champions.
And amazingly, Dale’s cousin Johnnie Hendrick intrigued her so much with the Old West sport of Cowboy Action Shooting that she encouraged Dale to take up that sport with her – run by an organization known as SASS (Single Action Shooting Society). They both participated in SASS events across the U.S. – throughout Northern, Central, and Southern California, Idaho, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
After Austin was born and was in school, she became intensely interested in politics – first running for the city council of Saratoga, California. Then she became a member of the Saratoga Public Safety Commission. Eventually, she ran for and won a Board of Trustees seat for the joint Mission College and West Valley College district. She then became president of that board. She also ran against incumbent John Vasconcellos for the California State Assembly, but she barely lost. Soon after, she became the Treasurer for state assemblyman, Jim Cunneen. In that job, she convinced Jim Cunneen to sponsor and get passed legislation that allowed clean air vehicles to use the “Diamond Lanes” or “HOV lanes”. She also won the award of “1999 Bay Area Clean Air Champion” as the driving force to get three different government agencies to adopt clean natural gas vehicles for their use.
After retiring, she traveled with Dale across the U.S. in two different large motorhomes for over 102,000 miles. She loved this life so much that she wanted to do that full time, but a love for Florida coastal boating arose instead. And now for about 11 years, she has been actively boating up and down the Gulf and Atlantic Coast of Florida, in a Ranger Tug boat.
Eclipsing all her activities and accomplishments, she was most proud of her son Austin and grandson Lee.
A memorial service will be held at 4:00 p.m., Monday, October 23, 2023, at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home, 2525 Central Expressway North, Allen, Texas 75013. The service will be livestreamed at https://celebrationoflife.tv/blog/karin-may-carmichael-dowdy. After the service, the recorded livestream will be available at the same link location.