Karin Johanna (Collum) Breen

Karin tragically was killed,  before her time, on March 17, 2023.

She was born at Patrick Air Force Base, Cocoa Beach, FL on Dec 6, 1965...same month/day as her grandmother, 50 years apart,  to  Brigitte (Collum) Breen.  Karin is survived by her mother, Brigitte Breen-Thompson,  stepdad, Cleve Thompson, half-brother,  Destin Applegate,  Dallas, TX,  step-sister, Michele Towner, Wellsville, KS    as well as   many other relatives and friends.

Karin was a very active little girl, swimming and skating, riding bike and fishing, hunting for tadpoles and crawdads: a real tomboy.  Karin learned to swim at an early age, at KARS Park, when Mom worked for TWA at KSC in Florida.  Later Mom worked at Disney World and Karin got to spend lots of time at the park, seeing the characters and going to Disney employee movie nights.  She had a repertoire of cartoon characters' voices, replicating them exactly.  Mom was strict; particular that whatever you did was done correctly ... and Karin was always careful to be very accurate and exacting in her work... just ask her longtime coworker and friend, Debbie.  Programming, her work  tracking aircraft maintenance and her driving required accuracy and attention to detail.  She was a hard worker who kept meticulous notes about processes and instructions .... especially in her airport and school bus driving. She had to clearly and accurately communicate with dispatch and the students. School bus driving  involved the safety of "her kids".  Karin loved the water:  was on the New Mark swim team;  got certified as a PADI diver in Grand Cayman.  Karin took dance and tumbling for years in Plate Woods.  She was an excellent roller skater .. "dancing" on her skates;  she also ice skated at Crown Center Ice Terrace. She played some softball, tennis and golf;  she skied - A Basin and Breckenridge were favorites.  She enjoyed movies;  had excellent recall of plots and music artists and titles. She liked going fishing and the outdoors generally and was a guide for men  ( "city slickers" ) who came to the "wilds" of Idaho to hunt bear. That's where she toted her 357 Magnum, "cause those brown bears are big and mean."  Her step-dad,  Cleve Thompson, took her to ranges and taught her how to shoot, drive a stick shift and  CAREFULLY  and SAFELY drive on ice.

Her coworkers at First Student loved her smile.  Karin had a big and generous heart;  she'd give you the shirt off her back.   She  loved animals:  had fish, gerbils, cats and  dogs;  enjoyed riding and grooming horses ... that was one reason she took the job in Idaho.

Karin was full of "spunk" and never met a challenge she did not take on:   Like being in the wild with bears and getting a CDL to  drive a "40 foot pusher" ... the buses at the  KCI rental car facility.  Karin has a Class B CDL, (with air brakes and school bus endorsements). 

Her first job, while still in high school, was for Macy's.  Then she enjoyed time at AMC theaters at Metro North.  She graduated from Oak Park High and Maple Woods, Kansas City,  with a degree in applied science and started  work the same month for PARS/Worldspan as a programmer... working on the early versions of "bag-match" .. "tieing"  passengers to their bags, for their flights.  When the job moved to Marietta, GA, she declined to participate in "all that traffic" around Atlanta,  resigned and took the job in Idaho.  After several years of "bears", she returned to Kansas City and TWA, which "became"  AA.   The airlines were in her blood ... she first flew international to Germany at the age of 4 to meet her grandmother and great-grandmother.  Karin and her mother, whose career and life was TWA,  traveled all the time, until she "aged out" on her mother's passes;  then with PARS/Worldspan she had her own flight benefits.  She  was  very dismayed  when,  TWA/AA was no longer in Kansas City, so she continued in aviation at Jet Midwest, at the Overhaul Base,  among other duties, writing programs for them; she also worked for other aviation contractors at the old downtown airport (MCI). 

Still wanting to stay around aviation, she worked for the City of Kansas City, driving the Red and Blue buses  at the airport.  After that,  she drove for First Transit,  the big buses, "40 foot pushers" she called them,  at the KCI rental car facility.  Passengers loved her upbeat personality:  she  used to sing to them....she had a good voice. Moving from that to being a school bus monitor and  driver, for First Student; she drove bus 64, for the Park Hill School District.  Here,  she learned what having to discipline children was all about... they  had to stay in their seat and not be too loud and messy.... it was about SAFETY for the children.  She loved them. Karin talked to her "charges" about unicorns,  dragons and dinosaurs.   She decorated her bus with a "butterfly garden" ... ivy in the ceiling,  attached magnetically,  with butterflies and fairy lights.  Like the butterflies, she  had Halloween and Christmas decor for "her kids".   She dressed up for them with Christmas "antlers",  to make their rides fun. Karin's favorite color was purple ... she started acquiring "school bus driver tee shirts", exhibiting her infectious sense of humor! :  "  Parents...be nice to your Bus Driver...Kids tell us all Kinds of Stuff about You",  "Be nice to the Bus Driver, it's a long walk home from school";  "I carry the Cutest Bunnies" ...with a picture of a school bus with bunny ears"; "Sorry, did I just roll my Eyes out loud?"  She has bus driver shirts for most holidays from Valentine's through Christmas and Last Day of School.   She has quite a collection, which her fellow drivers will wear in her honor at Wednesday's celebration.

Please send  any memorials to your local animal shelter.

Karin's  love of life and adventure, fun and humor,  her loyalty, as well as that big, friendly  smile,  was much loved by those who really knew her.   Her untimely death leaves a hole in her Stepdad's and her Mother's hearts!

Her fellow drivers at First Student are hosting a Celebration of Life, 6 pm,  April 5, Barry Road Park, 8299 N. Congress Ave., Kansas City, Mo 64153. All previous co-workers and employers, her "kids" and their parents,  and family and  friends  are invited.  Please join us to celebrate Karin's life!