Karen Farber

Karen Farber Obituary

July 29, 1943-April 6, 2026

Karen was much loved by her parents, J.A. Cobb, Jr. and Johnnie Melba Payne Cobb. Karen was born in Hugo, Oklahoma, where Johnnie was living with her parents while J.A. served in the Army Air Corps. In 1946, Karen welcomed a sister Sharon to the family. Karen was very close to her maternal grandparents, John Payne and Nettie Payne. They played many games of dominos and “42”. Grandpa Payne was an amazing singer who taught a multitude of folksongs to his granddaughters and other children in the neighborhood. Singing with Grandpa Payne instilled a lifelong love of music in Karen. At the end of WWII, Karen, Johnnie and J.A. first lived in Caddo, OK where J.A. taught agriculture. Karen graduated from Durant Oklahoma High School and Southeastern State Teachers College. Karen taught English and Language Arts at several high schools and was accepted in the Teacher’s Corps. She was a gifted artist and teacher who was loved by her students and fellow artists. She was a skilled potter who gathered clay from her grandparents’ farm to construct “weedpots” and bowls. And she loved poetry: her favorite romantics as well as the more plainspoken Robert Frost.

In 1972 Karen was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and spent the next several years institutionalized between periods of living with her family. She was briefly married to Bernard Farber. Karen was part of a study that allowed her to be treated with Clozaril. Karen’s positive response Clozaril allowed her to live outside of an institution with her parents in Sherman, TX. In 1997, J.A. died and Karen continued to live with her mother, Johnnie. Karen enjoyed listening to music, shopping and watching television game shows with her mother. The Grayson County Mental Health Center helped Karen and Johnnie navigate her life with mental illness.

By 2010 Johnnie was suffering from dementia and she and Karen went to live with Sharon and her husband Mac Sudduth in Decatur, GA. Johnnie passed away in 2012. Karen, after suffering several instances of aspiration pneumonia, had to have tube feeding for the rest of her life. She moved with her sister Sharon and her family to Schenectady in 2013.

Through Rotary, Karen’s brother-in-law Mac had become familiar with the Eddy PACE program- a program that allows disabledindividuals to live at home while receiving state of the art medical care and social services. Karen was able to enroll in the PACE program in the first month that she lived in Schenectady and remained a participant until her death. The love and support Karen and the whole family experienced with the PACE program were truly remarkable. The last few years of her life Karen enjoyed completing search-a-word books, coloring books, watching her beloved Yankees on TV and Wheel of Fortune and The and Sharon before her final illness. A lifelong political lefty, Karen was a political news junkie. Karen is survived and mourned by her sister Sharon Sudduth, Sharon’s husband, Mac Sudduth, her nephew Andrew Sudduth, his wife Stefanie Sudduth and her grandniece Isabella Rose Sudduth and her friends of the PACE staff. During her stay in Schenectady, Karen received care at Ellis Hospital and other physicians in the area. Karen and the Sudduth family are grateful for the care she received from the local healthcare community and Medicare and Medicaid that allowed a person with Karen’s disabilities to live a full and rewarding life at home.A memorial service to be held at the family’s homewill be announced later. Graveside services to inter Karen’s cremated remains will be held at a family plot in a rural cemetery in Oklahoma this summer.