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Karen and Dan Hurst

| Winter 2025-26

Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dan have been married for almost 50 years. They have five kids and eleven grandchildren. They were married on March 18, 1977, and have taught their family so many things about love and life and laughing. Here is an interview with the best grandparents ever. The Davis family kids (who live in La Crosse) interviewed both of them for this piece because, after all, they are inseparable. To Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dan from all of your family: We love you; you know that.

Dan and Karen Hurst

What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you?

(GK- Grandma Karen, GD- Grandpa Dan) 

GD: Never go to bed angry.  
GK: Always measure your words, because once they are out you can’t take them back. My dad told me that.  
GD: He was right, too! 

How about the worst? 

GK: My band teacher told me not to take typing because I wouldn’t be good at it. That made me feel like I was not good at it before I even started! 

GD: When your Aunt Hannah was born, someone told me, “Now you’ll need more money, and you’ll need to work more so that you can have more money in the family.”  It was not good advice because the most important thing is to be there with your kids, not the cost to pay for things. 

What did you want to be when you grew up?

The Hurst’s five kids

GK: A teacher or a nurse… and in the end, I was a teacher and a nurse because I was a mom.
GD: A job where I worked with people, not machines, and I could help them.  Maybe a counselor.
GK: And in the end, he did because he was a counselor to five kids… 
GD: And to Grandma Karen, too. 

If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want with you?

GD: My Bible, a solar powered recording of my favorite music, and Grandma.

GK: My Bible, my glasses because I can’t hear anything without my glasses on, pictures of my family. Henrietta: Maybe you guys could share a Bible…?

Try to describe the other person in one sentence.

GK: Grandpa is a wise, compassionate, comforting, strong, helpful partner.

GD: I read a line from Emily Dickinson yesterday and I said, “Grandma, this sounds just like you.” She said to herself, “I am small, like the wren, and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur, and my eyes are like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves.” That is your Grandma.

If you could eat anything every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

GK: POPCORN!
GD: A New York strip.

Name one thing you could not live without. 

GK: Grandpa. Actually… popcorn.
GD: Oxygen. On a more serious note…coffee.

Tell us about your wedding day.

GD: The day of our wedding, my boss called me and said they had a person call in sick and asked if I could come in, to which I said, “I don’t know if you remember but I am getting married today.”

GK: We had a blizzard the night before and I was worried that no one could come. I got my hair done and my dress on and then we went out and everything was white and beautiful. The snow had melted on the sidewalks, and everyone was there.

GD: We pulled away from the church in a black and gold 1977 Pontiac Firebird and we listened to the song, Fly like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band

Advice to your kids and grandkids.

GK: Be strong in your convictions, trust in the Lord, and be kind to others.

GD: Honor your mother and father and when you have questions on whether something is right or wrong, you go and you talk to your mom and dad. Always honor your mom and dad.  

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