Karen was a straight-A student where
she grew up in Sebastopol, California. Her Portuguese
grandfather Americanized the family surname of Valentin years
before Karen was born. She began fighting the terminal case of
the cutes even as a teen, when she competed in beauty
contests. She would deliberately perform sexier musical
numbers during her talent segments to offset the burgeoning
"cute" factor. She first won a spot representing California at
the Miss Teenage America pageant.
Such competitions as "Miss Teenage Santa Rosa" and "Miss Sonoma
Country" eventually brought her to the attention of Ed Sullivan,
who, like everyone else, was quite taken by her. He was quoted as
saying "I want that girl on my show" and soon after she appeared
twice on his variety show.
In 1969 Karen received her huge break when she was cast as the
fumbling new teacher in town in "Room 222." 
This charming, star-making success went five seasons and led to a
series of lightweight mini-movies. She succeeded Sally Field as
Gidget Lawrence in the TV-movie Gidget Grows Up (1969)
with Paul Petersen, and continued on a roll with Coffee, Tea or
Me? (1973) co-starring John Davidson, and The Girl Who
Came Gift-Wrapped (1974) opposite the late Richard Long. In
between she kept busy with several episodes of "Love, American
Style" and was seen chatting frequently with Johnny Carson on
his late night show. During the day she was a semi-regular panelist
on "The Hollywood Squares" for a greater part of the
1970s.
Fortunately, Karen was keen enough to channel her talents
on stage, where she has been allowed more depth and gratification.
Such stock productions as "The Moon Is Blue" (1972),
"Born Yesterday" (1973), "Bus Stop" (1975) and
"Two for the Seesaw" (1979) kept her happily challenged.
As she matured, she tackled more promising theater parts in
"Romantic Comedy" (1988), "Social Security"
(1989), "Breaking Legs" (1992) and "Steel
Magnolias" (2003). Sporadically seen on TV and film these
days, she most recently played a beleaguered mother of three in the
comedy Wedding Daze (2004).
Located just off a paved walking path in the Heartland development.
From the parking area, take the westerly route around the small
lake for just over .3 miles. The cache is a camoed decon container,
nestled comfortably about 325' from the paved path. A mowed trail
leads most of the way to the site and then a small amount of
bushwhacking may be necessary during the growing season. There are
thorns and PI in the area, but mostly avoidable to reach GZ. This
is a log only cache so BYO
although there is room for
trading items.
Coordinates were determined with a WAAS enabled eTrex Legend Cx,
averaged over a 5 minute span to an accuracy of 4.3'.
