Meet Choir President, Karen Dupaix

Teri Allred is getting together our spotlights. Here's what she insisted I include as a preface to this spotlight: 

We’re going to start our Get to Know You Series this year with our Awesome Choir President!  In addition to her full-time role as wife, mother and the many hobbies and interests you’ll learn about as you read about her – she recently added a full-time job.  We can’t even begin to express our gratitude to her for all she does to help make the chorus successful.  Thank you Karen for all you do!  We love you!

I was born the second of eight children in Beautiful Portland, Oregon, where I lived until I attended college at BYU and served a 19-month mission in North Carolina. During my freshman year at BYU I marched in the Cougar Marching Band.

At BYU, I majored in English and Human Development. I minored in Ballroom dance. I met Paul in our BYU ward when I was 24. Six months later, we were married in the Logan temple by my mission president. Paul and I have seven children (4 boys, 3 girls), ranging in age from 11 to 24 years. The oldest three have served missions, including 4 months of concurrent service, which we refer to as our “$1200 club months.”

I’ve traveled to most of the western and northwestern states and Canada. One day I would like to visit Hawaii and the church history sites in the Midwest. I’d also like to see New England and Italy.

Some foods I love are: home cooked comfort food, almost anything chocolate, especially with nuts, ice cream, cinnamon, and red candy like Swedish fish and Red Vines. I like most fruits, but dislike most anything lemon flavored. The single exception is lemon squares--with thin crust. I don’t like black licorice, sweet peppers of any color, or liver.

I like feel-good movies like “Up,” “Somewhere in Time,” “Return to Me,” “Enchanted,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I don’t like violent or trashy shows. I haven’t watched TV in years, with the exception of an occasional football game and General Conference.

I enjoy listening to classical music, especially Rachmaninoff, Vivaldi, Brahms and Bach. I also like 80’s era love songs, Julie Andrews and Maureen McGovern. But my children would attest that most of the time I listen to the chorus practice files.

I love classical literature, Bronte’s Jane Eyre being my all-time favorite, but I also love novels by Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. I am a bit of a literary snob and have little patience with poorly written books.

My hobbies are many. I am a very creative person and love to learn new things. I have successfully dabbled in: sewing, knitting, crocheting, hand embroidery, needlepoint, quilting, card-making, oil painting, watercolor painting, face painting, balloon sculpture, quilling (a paper art), bookbinding, machine embroidery, gardening, ballroom dancing, cake decorating, calligraphy, scrapbooking, costume design, alterations, bookbinding, 3-D pumpkin carving, singing, piano, cycling, word games, board games, flute, saxophone, fixing 1,000-piece puzzles, cooking, writing and probably more that I can’t remember. I would one day like to learn to draw and to tat.

I was never in choir when I was in high school because I found I couldn't be in both choir and band. I have, however, been involved in choirs for community productions such as "Saturday's Warrior," and stake and ward-based events. Growing up, my family always sang together, both privately and in public. When I had my own family and we lived in Tooele, our young family sang while I played the guitar at "Pioneer Jubilee" and Arbor Day celebrations, as well as participating in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," and "Oklahoma!" We also were extras in the movie, "Forever Strong."

An accomplishment that I am particularly proud of is receiving my Master Gardener certificate from Larry Sagers, and also taking some advance Master Gardener training from him. This is the equivalent of an associate’s degree in horticulture. I also own an Etsy store and my own business, called “Write My Personal History, LLC.”

I stayed home and raised my family once my oldest daughter was born, but prior to that I worked as a secretary, where I gained mad typing skills. When I was first married I was a Kelly Girl. More recently, I worked from my home for several years, doing alterations for a drycleaners in Tooele. This past August I started working a full-time, seasonal job for Lifetouch as a customer service agent.

One thing you may not know about our family is that we found a human skull in our attic in Tooele in 2008. Maybe you remember that news story. Here's a link to KSL's coverage of the event: Skull in the Attic

I’ve held many church callings over the years, but my favorite has been Gospel Doctrine teacher. Currently I am the ward historian and I play the piano in Relief Society.

We previously lived in Salt Lake City and in Tooele for 11 years before moving to Lehi a little over five years ago.