Karen I. Weis

Karen I. Weis, 80, of Paola, KS, passed away Saturday June 21, 2025, at the Olathe Hospice House. A visitation will be held from 6-8PM on Thursday June 26th at Dengel & Son Mortuary in Paola. A private graveside will follow at the Paola Cemetery.

Karen was born December 12, 1944, in Kansas City, Missouri to John Xavier Sifers and Fayetta Mildred Sifers (Rushton) she was the baby of the family as she had an older brother Francis X. Sifers. She grew up in the Northeast area of Kanas City where she attended grammar school, she later graduated from Northeast Senior High School. She worked for Southwestern bell as a phone operator during the Bay of Pigs, she was well respected and sought after during this time for her uncanny attention to detail and lightning-fast skills (she was only 15). Shortly after she married her first husband John Francis Gallagher (Ohio, deceased) at 16 and had two sons, John F. Gallager, and Jeffrey J. Gallagher. She went on to marry her second husband William F. Douglas (Ohio, deceased) who had one son William “Buddy” Douglas (Ohio) that he brought to the experience and together they created one daughter Michele “Shannon” Allison (Kansas). Karen went on to become an excellent bar tender with a very prestigious job at the Marriott Hotel at KCI airport and several facilities in the greater Kansas City area, and at one of those places she met her current husband Michael Weis, they were married in 1984 and moved to Shawnee Ks. where they discovered their love of camping, fishing and adopting dogs, which turned into their love of breeding and raising dogs, (they loved them all too much to sell them) they bred and raised Chow-Chows, and Shih Tzu’s, and after realizing they needed a lot more space for all of their hobbies they moved to Paola Ks. where they purchased a 20-acre farm and poured their heart and soul into their little piece of heaven. She loved sitting at the kitchen table looking into her back yard watching the deer and turkeys roaming her property, but her favorite thing was to sit and watch the birds that came to the feeders that her husband placed all about the deck for her (when she was too frail to go out anymore) and she knew the name of every bird that came to her feeders and she could tell you all about them. She loved her farm, she loved her peace, and she loved her family.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents Fayetta M. Nickels and John X. Sifers, one brother Francis X. Sifers as well as one son John F. Sifers (Ohio).

Karen is survived by her husband of 41 years Mike Weis of the home, son Jeffrey J. Gallagher (Ohio), two daughters Shannon (Charles) Allison, and Melissa Mahr, one granddaughter Chloe (Ian) Allison-Goucher, one grandson Levi (Legacy) Allison-VanBlaricon, four greatgrandchildren Aurora, Weston, Lorelai, and Maddox. She is also survived by her sister Christine (Mike) Dodd of Garden City, and her brother Mike Nickels of Independence Mo

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Friends of KCK Animal Services

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