Karen Christine Brooks, died peacefully at Montrose Memorial Hospital in Montrose, Co., at the age of 78. Karen was born in Franklin, Indiana on September 27, 1939 to Ashell and Nancy Edwards. She married Raymond Graves in 1959 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They lived briefly in New Mexico, Texas, Alaska and Arizona. They had two children Paul and Evelyn. Karen and Raymond divorced in 1966 while living in Flagstaff, Arizona. Karen and her two children moved to Montrose in the early 1970’s. She remarried in 1980 to Clarence (Rusty) Brooks. They shared 16 wonderful years of marriage until Rusty passed away from cancer in 1996. Her last 20 years…

James L. Penasa July 11, 1932 ~ May 7, 2018 James L. Penasa, Lifelong Coloradoan, long time Montrose resident, Veteran and longtime active Member of Zion Lutheran Church, passed away on May 7, 2018 at his home. Jim was born to Italian immigrant parents Serafino and Mary Penasa in Rico, Colorado. Jim attended grade school at the one room school in Ophir and in Telluride. The family then moved to a farm west of Montrose where Jim graduated from Montrose High School with the close knit class of 1950. Jim served seven years with the military; three years with a National Guard Infantry Company and then with the Navy, serving…