Karen Ross Towne, a former Federal Way school teacher, died Oct. 27 at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen. She was 66.

She was born July 13, 1937, in Wayzata City, Minn., to Earl and Eleanor Olson. After the death of her mother, she moved to Sedro Woolley, Wash. to live with relatives. She graduated from Sedro Woolley High School in 1955 and Western Washington University in 1959 with a bachelors degree in education.

She taught elementary school in the Shoreline School District, at Western Washington University Campus School (an experimental model for elementary schools in the state), Olalla Elementary School in the South Kitsap School District, and Nautilus Elementary School in Federal Way, where she taught for 21 years.

In 1970, she married Milton Towne, a principal at another school in Federal Way. She retired in 1989 after 30 years of teaching.

Survivors include her husband and a sister, Margaret May Jackson of Sun City, Ariz.. She was preceded in death by her sister, Ann Olson.

At her request, there was no funeral or memorial service.