Waita Karcher

Waita Karcher, daughter of Hez and Ormagene (Barbee) Salsbury, was born November 5, 1955 in Pueblo, Colorado. She passed away Monday, October 28, 2013 in the Lake Regional Hospital of Osage Beach, Missouri after a long and brave battle against cancer. Waita grew up in Pueblo and graduated from South High School in 1974. Shortly after graduation, she began attending the University of Southern Colorado. While a student at Southern Colorado, Waita met the love of her life during a shooting rifle competition. His name was Donald John Karcher, an infantry officer in the United States Army. They were married on May 15, 1976 in Fort Carson and enjoyed their honeymoon in Ft. Benning, Georgia where Don was serving. They were blessed with two children: John and Robyn. Waita, Don and their family moved several times with the military. They were stationed at Ft. Dix, Ft. Carson, Ft. Benning, Netherlands and Germany before being transferred to Fort Leonard Wood in 1992 where they decided to stay after Don’s retirement from the military. Waita was a hardworking woman. While stationed at Ft. Dix, she was the thrift store manager, a sewing machine representative for Pfaff Sewing Machine in the Netherlands, the Chief of Girl Scout Volunteers in Europe and then was employed by the University of Missouri. Waita’s 20 year career with the University of Missouri Extension as a 4H Youth Program Assistant touched many youth and volunteers in the community. Waita earned many accolades including the Army Generals Coin for her work with military families and 4H YPA of the year for her contributions to 4H. Waita presented programs at several National Conferences for the 4H Army Program and the 4H Camping Program. She loved 4H camping, working with the camp counselors, singing songs with the campers and ooey gooey science programs. Most of all she loved the kids she worked with and always created positive youth development experiences so that they could learn life skills to help them succeed in the real world. Waited created 4-H days at Fort Leonard Wood that educates military kids about FLW youth services and 4H programs. This annual program has been going strong for over 10 years touching over 2500 military kids with educational hands-on programs. In her spare time, Waita enjoyed shooting, cooking and volunteering. Even when her health began to decline, she still did as much as she could to help with the different organizations that she was involved in. Most importantly, she loved her family and cherished all those times they spent together. Waita was a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother, aunt and friend. She will be sadly missed, but fondly remembered by all those that knew and loved her. She leaves to cherish her memory her husband, Donald Karcher of the home; parents: Hez and Ormagene Salsbury of Pueblo, CO; two children: John Karcher and wife Simone and Robyn Batross and husband Chris; one sister: Crystal Aurand; one brother: Hezzie Salsbury; three grandchildren: Sebastian and Ariana Conrad and Isaac Batross; two aunts: Sandy Koehn and Rita Barbee; one uncle: John Koehn; several nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. Services were held at 2:00 p.m. Friday, November 1, 2013 in the Memorial Chapels and Crematory of Waynesville / St. Robert with family friend Pete Scheffer officiating. The songs “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Laura’s Theme”, “I Dreamed a Dream” and “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” were played. Serving as escorts were John Karcher, Hez Salsbury, Sr., Hez Salsbury, Jr., Joe Aurand, Alex Aurand and Hank Aurand. Serving as honorary escorts were Phillip Stone, Blake Allen, Doug Renno and Chris Batross. Burial followed in the Missouri Veterans Cemetery – Fort Leonard Wood.

Waita Karcher

November 5, 1955 - October 28, 2013