Gloria Stoll Karn

Gloria Stoll Karn, 98, transitioned to life eternal, at her own home, surrounded by loved ones, on Saturday, July 23, 2022. Born in New York City, the only child of Charles and Anne Finamore Stoll, Gloria studied at the High School of Music and Art and the Art Students’ League. She began a celebrated career as an illustrator of pulp magazines at the age of 17, becoming one of the few women to succeed in a male dominated field.

She moved to Pittsburgh in 1948 when she married Fred Spies Karn and continued her art studies under Samuel Rosenberg, becoming well known as an abstract expressionist, a portrait artist, and a watercolorist.  Her artwork is in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art and Yale University. Her work has been displayed at the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Westmorland Museum of Art, and many other venues.

The works of art that always brought her the greatest joy, however, were her beautiful home and beloved family. The home designed and built by Gloria and Fred was a gathering place for luminaries in the art world, a long-standing Great Books group, her beloved Bible study group, neighborhood children, and friends and family too numerous to count.

Gloria is predeceased by her husband of 63 years, Fred Karn. She is survived by her three children Vera White (Tom), Shari Mastalski, and Keith Karn (Jill); and seven grandchildren, Erin Tetterton (Todd), Shawn Cregan, Alex White (Lindsay), Adam White, Emma Karn, Elijah Karn, and Henry Karn. She also leaves behind two great-grandchildren, Evelyn Gloria Tetterton and Maeve Lindsay White.

Private burial in Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, Verona. Family and friends are invited to celebrate Gloria’s life at a memorial service at Northway Christian Community, 12121 Perry Highway, Wexford PA 15090, on Saturday, August 13 at 10:00 AM. Memorial gifts may be made to the North Hills Art Center, 3432 Babcock Boulevard, Pittsburgh PA 15237. Arrangements by Natural Funeral Company. www.naturalfuneralcompany.com

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