Karen Velte Davis, originally of Middletown, Ohio, passed away in Glendale, California after a years-long, and victorious, battle with metastatic breast cancer on July 22, 2026 with her son, Brian, by her side.
Karen was a proud graduate of Middletown High School and studied at Indiana University, where she met her future husband and father of her children, Ronald C. Davis.
Raising her kids in Indianapolis, she held a long and winding series of jobs over the decades, always leaving them on her own terms for greener pastures. She was a natural at sales & marketing. Her proudest work story, often retold, involved winning a sales contest at a mattress store, defeating seasoned salesmen as a rookie (and a woman, no less), then promptly quitting and moving to California.
She was a movie fan (if a film came out between 1980-2010, she probably saw it in the theater), an art lover (Van Gogh and the French Impressionists in particular), and became an avid opera fan, but her biggest fandom, musical or otherwise, always remained The Beatles (especially Paul–no disrespect to the other three, all of whom she also loved, but they couldn’t hold a candle to Sir Paul).
Karen was, for many, many years, a dedicated student of “A Course in Miracles,” a spiritual teaching on forgiveness. She committed herself to its pathway of kindness in her personal and professional life.
Karen was preceded in death by her parents, Robert H. Velte and Martha Shelby Velte; her sister, Shelby Ann Velte Whitesell; her daughter, Alissa K. Davis, and ex-husband, Ronald C. Davis. She is survived by her sister, Robin E. Velte of Elkhart, Indiana; her son, Brian R. Davis of Los Angeles; and by the greatest love of her life (even more so than her children, more than Trayce Jackson-Davis, Steph Curry, and Caitlin Clark combined, even more than Sir Paul himself), her granddaughter, Kaeli A. King of Laguna Hills, California.
In accordance with her wishes, there will be no official service, though her many longtime friends are welcome to hold any ceremonies they feel appropriate.
