Karen grew up in Moulton Alabama and moved to Huntsville while in high school. At this time she was writing music and won her first talent show at Huntsville High her senior year singing a song she wrote, "Bits of faded rose petals".

In 1984 she married Sam and was performing at various events and had several songs playing on the radio. During the next years she concentrated on raising their two children and teaching kindergarten. Several years ago her passion for writing, singing and performing was ignited again and she has gone on to write over 200 songs.

Currently Karen is singing locally at various coffee shops, assisted living homes, restaurants, churches, parties and even at Panoply this year. Karen also enjoys writing custom songs for special occasions. She will take your information for a person or event and write a song to help celebrate that special time.

Karen plays the guitar and often has a fiddler or another instrument to join her. She has a two CD's out entitled, 30 Years in the City, and Garden of Faith. Karen's music is made up of inspirational, folk and country. Karen placed first in the inspiration category for the MOVA songwriter's competition in 2009. She is a member of ASCAP and NSAI and has established her own publishing company called Cross Born Publishing.