Karen Ann (Johnson) Braaten

Karen Ann (Johnson) Braaten, born on December 5, 1949, passed peacefully from our world into the deeper currents of life on December 22, 2025 in Bagley, MN. She joins her parents, Walter and Jean (Hibbard) Johnson.

Karen was born in Bemidji, MN, where she attended high school and earned a degree in Business Education at Bemidji State University, and where she met her life partner, Clint “Sonny” Braaten (Jr.). Beyond her family, Karen’s great love was for the faces of Mother Nature found in the changing seasons, the haunting call of a loon across a moonlit lake, or the idyllic sight of a whitetail doe and her fawn at sunrise stepping warily from the forest onto a dew-covered field. Early in their lives together, Sonny and Karen moved to Solway, Minnesota, making a deliberate choice to raise their sons, Ben and Derrick, in the heart of the Northwoods. Building a life anchored in Nature’s beauty, they taught their sons to value truth and simplicity in their relationships and in how they relate to the world around them. Karen’s love for the natural world lives on with her partner Sonny, and in their two boys whose entire lives were spent learning all of the lessons and wisdom Karen sought to pass down through the place she and Sonny chose to settle their family.

When Ben and Derrick were older and left home, Sonny and Karen moved and made their home on Long Lake in Turtle River, with the loons and bald eagles, amongst the cedars and Norway pines. They loved life on the lake and evening rides on the pontoon (with a sangria or her “Mike’s” to drink along the way). After many years on the lake, Sonny and Karen moved out to “the land,” which is where the family spent their lives going hunting, cutting and hauling home Christmas trees, and just walking in the woods. During these years Karen spent her time raising the boys, working at a wallpapering business, and eventually a career managing business administration at Neilson Place (formerly North Country Nursing and Rehab). Her work, however, was always secondary to her family and the forest and the lake. Her legacy lives on through that family and the love of the natural world she instilled in her two sons, and the mark she left on those she loved. Karen’s circle of friends was a close one, and she loved those in that circle with fierce loyalty.

Karen is survived by her husband Clint “Sonny” Braaten, Jr., her son Ben Braaten and granddaughters Tempe and Lux, and her son Derrick Braaten (Renae Mosbrucker) and grandsons Leif and Ivar. She is also survived by her sister Ginger “Gudgie” Nicklason (Steve), and her nephew Pete Nicklason and niece Carrie Cola (Tony).

"We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree... Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature... You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself." - Alan Watts

Please join us as we gather to honor, remember, and celebrate the life of Karen Ann Braaten. Come share food and drink, and your memories, and help us celebrate a life well lived.

Celebration of Life: June 19, 2026, 10:30-11:30 – Service at Olson Schwartz Funeral Home (3330 Irvine Ave NW).  12:00 – 3:00 – Food, drink, and celebration at Bemidji Eagles Aerie #351 (1270 Neilson Ave SE).

Hosted by - Clint “Sonny” Braaten Jr., Ben Braaten, & Derrick Braaten

Questions, call Ben at 651-470-1391 or Derrick at 701-400-0162

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