Karen Merck Goodin, 68, previously of Decorah, Iowa, died surrounded by her family on May 7, 2026, at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minnesota.

Memorial services will take place at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to CurePSP, a nonprofit that is dedicated to improving care for PSP patients, supporting patients and families, and seeking a cure for the rare neurological disease.

Born in Minneapolis in 1957 to Kenneth and Judith (Coryell) Merck, Karen graduated from Indiana University in 1981 with a degree in English. She married John Goodin in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1986; their marriage was a model of friendship, mutual respect, and love. John and Karen lived in Indiana and Kentucky before moving to Decorah with their four children in 1994. Karen lived in Decorah for more than thirty years, moving to Eagan, Minnesota in December 2025 to be closer to medical care.

Karen had a wide-ranging and deeply curious mind and filled her life with music, language, books, handwork, and family. She played the Celtic harp and, for many years, attended the annual Ohio Scottish Arts School at Oberlin College with fellow harp students. She also explored flute, recorder, guitar, and accordion, and took up fiddle as an adult learner. She was fascinated by languages and studied several including Gaelic, French, Italian, Russian, German, and Norwegian. Karen was a lifelong reader with a particular fondness for mysteries. Professionally, she had worked as a library copy cataloger at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and later in life as a freelance book indexer. Karen loved fiber arts, especially knitting and weaving, and she enjoyed knitting stuffed animals almost every year for each of her grandchildren.

Karen was preceded in death by her husband, John, in 2021. She is survived by her four children, Ardys (Reed) Palmer of Carrboro, North Carolina, Cene (Adrienne Grove) Ketcham of Annapolis, Maryland, Braham (Anna Timmerman) Ketcham of Oak Park, Illinois, and Maura Goodin of Minneapolis, Minnesota; as well as her four grandchildren, Sylvia and Bobby Palmer, and Cora and Elliot Ketcham; and her brothers, Greg and Eric Merck