Karen Burns

    

      Yesterday we said goodbye to Karen Burns our course Horticulturist. Karen took a job with the City of Webster Groves Parks Department.  We wish her all the best but it comes with heavy hearts.  It is hard to say goodbye to someone you have worked with for 12 years.  Someone you respect professionally but more importantly you say goodbye to your friend.  Karen was like our mother.  She knew everyone's birthday's.  She made sure we celebrated everyone's birthday except hers. She would not tell anyone what day her birthday was on.  I could have easily looked up her birthday but I respected her wish.  Karen was a team player she cared about the entire operation.  Always willing to help out where she could.  Raking bunkers, picking up trash, moving tee block,  picking up debris,  cutting up fallen tree's, laying sod, helping with green aerification are just a few of the things she would help out with.  If you worked next to her you needed to give her a good 5 feet of space closer than that and you might get the end of a shovel or rake in the head.  Her work with our landscape beds throughout the golf course was fabulous.  She could start from scratch or work with existing plants and make it beautiful.  She was a master at planting containers she knew what plants worked best together.  She took our landscaping to the next level.  I would put our landscaping up against any course in the state.  Her budget was very modest compared to most clubs in the St. Louis area.  She did more with less.  She loved to burn and hated moles.  Some of you might have caught her slamming a shovel in the ground and hear her saying a few choice words, that was bad news for a mole.  We will miss her enthusiasm, passion, dedication, and friendship. It was my pleasure to work with her but more importantly I am honored to call her my friend. 

Burning Prairie she loved to burn





 Bigger the fire the better



Some of her work