Obituary of Karen Lewis

On December 26th, 2025 Karen passed peacefully into the arms of Jesus to celebrate her 63rd birthday. Born on December 26th, 1962 in Jersey City, NJ, Karen graduated from Rumson Fair Haven high school in 1980 and Ithaca College in 1984. Karen studied sociology, though her passion was always in communications. She developed a love for radio during her time in Ithaca, hand changing records as a disc jockey in the early 80s. Karen settled and raised her children in central New York, but her love for radio remained. After several decades as a full-time mom, Karen lived out her dream of becoming a radio personality across several stations in Ithaca, Homer, and Syracuse between 2008-2020. She enjoyed nothing more than bringing humor and quality music to her listeners. Karen described her happy place as Disney World, visiting as often as possible starting in the late 90s. She was able to visit one last time in 2021 before illness took her ability to travel. She loved the magic of Disney, and spent the last decade of her life hoping to find her own fairytale ending. Karen is survived by her four children, Kate(Austin) Ridge of Rochester NY, Morgan(Devon) Seiple of New Tripoli PA, Austin(Alex) Zapata of Cortland NY, and Evan (Skyler) Lewis of McClean NY, as well as seven grand children, her mother Rose Costello and brother John(Mel) Golembeski of Destin FL, and sister Ellen(Rob) Davis of Belford NJ. While she has left her earthly body behind, she has finally found the love and peace she spent her life searching for, in the arms of her savior in heaven. A celebration of life will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking donations be made in Karen’s honor to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America at ALZFDN.org.