Karen Perish

Karen Perish, 67, of Browerville passed away on January 8, 2016. Funeral services for Karen will be held on Wednesday, January 13, 2016, 11:00 a.m., at the Grey Eagle United Methodist Church. Friends may begin calling on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 4:00 – 8:00 p.m., at the Iten Funeral Home in Browerville and on the day of the funeral one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be held at Lakeview Cemetery, Grey Eagle.
Karen was born August 16, 1948, to Fred & Rosemary Bisel at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD. The same day came her identical twin sister, Sharen. However, Karen always said she was the youngest in the family of nine brothers and sisters.
Karen spent her youth growing up in Wheaton, MD. Being an identical twin, she and her sister, Sharen had many fun times during their school years, especially switching names, tricking teachers, and other fun things twins do. Karen graduated from Northwood High School in 1966. She attended the American Institute of Banking in 1968. Following school, she worked for several years at Central National Bank of Maryland and worked her way up to head bookkeeper.
After Karen’s parents retired and moved back to their family home in Grey Eagle in the early 70’s five of the brothers and sisters eventually followed, including Karen. Being the independent entrepreneur that Karen was, she purchased her own grocery store, Bisel’s Superette, in Long Prairie. While running the store, Karen met the love of her life, Alan Perish, in 1977, when he continually came into the store to pester her claiming he was looking for a good deal on loose grapes! Karen and Alan were married on February 3, 1979, at St. Peters Church in Browerville. With this new chapter in Karen’s life, she went from an independent city girl to a dairy farmer’s wife.
Karen transitioned into supporting Alan in her new role cooking three meals a day for the farmhands and working on the farm checking the cows during calving season which was a big highlight for Karen. She enjoyed the outdoors, gardening, her beloved dogs Cracker and Hunter, and other dogs and cats. She found that she enjoyed hunting with Alan and they would go up north bear hunting, deer hunting and grouse hunting. She has many impressive mounts to her credit.
Supporting farmers, Karen worked alongside Alan in the 80’s while he was active with the MN Milk Producers, township association and other local programs. In the late 90’s Karen and Alan became involved with the Minnesota Farmers Union when they found out there was a bus going to Washington DC to “Rally for Rural America”. Thanks to Karen and Alan’s recruitment work, Todd County was the largest county represented in the nation at that rally. They learned from their participation in the Farmer’s Union that in order to make a change in policy it was necessary to become involved in politics which led to their increased involvement with the DFL party. Over the years, Karen and Alan met and visited with many influential people and elected officials not only in Minnesota, but in Washington as well. They worked for the betterment of their fellow farmers and citizens in general to ensure that good, wholesome, food is affordable and the producers can make an honest living in doing so.
Karen battled breast cancer and had been a survivor nearly 15 years. She established herself as a team leader with the Relay for Life for all those years.
After her twin sister, Sharen, passed away unexpectedly in 2008, Karen stepped into the role of mom and grandma to Sharen’s daughter, Kara and her three boys. She cherished her role as grandma and enjoyed every moment spent with them.
Karen is survived by her husband, Alan Perish of Browerville, brother Donald (Bing) Bisel of Long Prairie; sisters June Auldridge and Jone Eaton of Gaithersburg, MD; niece Kara Honebrink and her sons Vincent Nash, Maxwell Honebrink and Nicholas Honebrink of Minnetonka; sisters-in-law Carolynne Bisel of Bertha and Betty Bisel of Texas; and a number of nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews.
Karen is preceded in death by her parents and twin sister, Sharen Bisel, sister Betty Tonelli, brothers, Ted, Fred and Pat Bisel.
Casket Bearers include Aaron Perish, David Bisel, Paul Jennissen, Lee Johnston, Thom Peterson, Paul Sobocinski, Myron Swanberg and Glen Taft. Honorary Casket Bearer is Donald (Bing) Bisel.