Dr. Lucia Aubert Rooney Karnes

Dr. Lucia Aubert Rooney Karnes passed away on September 8, 2012, at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in Winston-Salem, NC. She was a noted psychologist, educator, and community organizer. Born on March 9, 1921, in Moncton County, New Brunswick, Canada, to Charles William and Jean Robson Rooney, Karnes grew up in Decatur, GA. She attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, GA (B.A., psychology, 1942) and Emory University (M.S., psychology/education, 1946). She married the late Thomas Campbell Karnes in 1946 and moved to Winston-Salem, NC. She was an active volunteer in Winston; among other undertakings, she co-founded branches of the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women and served on the founding board of trustees for Forsyth Memorial Hospital. During the 1950's, Dr. Karnes was a language therapist at Graylyn (Bowman Gray School of Medicine) and worked with June Lyday Orton at The Reading Center. She taught at Salem College in the department of educational psychology and adored her ""college girls."" In 1967 Karnes received her Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill; her dissertation focused on children with specific language disabilities (dyslexia). In 1972, she established and directed The Center for Special Education at Salem College. The following year she founded Camp Loquastee at Patterson School in Happy Valley, NC, where over the course of 16 summers, she helped hundreds of dyslexic children learn to read. In 1976 she opened her counseling psychology practice in Winston-Salem, through which she tested more than 4000 children and adults. For the next decades, Karnes traveled throughout the southeastern US, training hundreds of teachers in the Orton-Gillingham approach. Schools where she served as academic consultant include Trident Academy in Mt. Pleasant, SC; Sandhills Academy, Columbia, SC; Greenfield School, Wilson, NC; Carolina Day School (The Key School), Asheville, NC; Erskine College and Wingate University. Dr. Karnes taught courses in the Orton approach at the University of Virginia, UNC-G, The Citadel, and The College of Charleston, among others. She presented papers on dyslexia in England and Australia. Dr. Karnes held multiple national positions in the International Dyslexia Association and chaired the organization's international conference in Winston-Salem in 1984. In 1993 she received the Samuel T. Orton Award, the IDA's highest accolade, and in 1999 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Wingate University. Lucia Karnes is survived by three children: Eleanore Karnes Pabarue and husband Jim of Philadelphia, PA; Timothy R. Karnes, Clemmons; and Charles W. Karnes, Chapel Hill; a nephew Ed Routh of Atlanta; and five grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 3, at 2 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem. Donations in Dr. Karnes' memory may be made to the North Carolina branch of the International Dyslexia Association (http://www.interdys.org/DonateMemorialGifts.htm - specify Dr. Lucia R. Karnes, North Carolina Branch) or to The Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (http://www.ortonacademy.org/support.php). Online condolences may be made at www.hayworth-miller.com.

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