Karen Biette Barstis died on May 18, 2024, in Bath, Maine.

(The following was provided by the Portland Press Herald on May 28, 2024:)

Karen Biette Barstis

Litchfield – Karen Biette Barstis, 71, died Saturday May 18, 2024, at Winship Green Nursing Home, Bath, after a battle with breast cancer. She was born in Brunswick on March 3, 1953, a daughter of Paul R. and Sidney Louden Biette.

She was a graduate of Brunswick High School. She married Robert “Bart” Barstis in Lisbon Falls on June 14, 1975. Her love for animals, which was a shared interest that led her to Bart, was a constant throughout her life.

Though beginning a professional career at Bowdoin College in the Admissions Department, she continued her career at L.L. Bean in the product development area, working there from 1979 until her retirement.

In retirement, she and Bart purchased Upper Pond Stables, a 32-stall horse boarding facility in Litchfield. After selling Upper Pond, the couple continued to own horses and have dogs at Meadow Mist Farms, their property in Litchfield. She enjoyed her vegetable gardens and fruit trees planted at Meadow Mist Farms. From being an avid fly-fisherwoman in Washington County, to her years helping to organize at the Litchfield Fair and showing Shire Draft Horses and her Shelties, Karen’s love for animals and a rural Maine life shone through.

She was predeceased by her mother, Sidney, and father, Paul; and a brother, David Biette.

She is survived by her husband of forty-eight years, Bart Barstis of Litchfield; a brother, Jeff Biette (Denise Mize-Biette) of Topsham, two sisters, Elaine Flanagan (Bart) of Marco Island, Fla. and Bowdoinham, Doreen Lynch (David) of Bowdoinham, and a sister-in-law, Cindy Aumick-Biette of Freeport; nieces and nephews Alisha LeClerc of Bowdoinham, Ashleigh Dennis of Saco, David J. Biette of Portland, Paul Biette of Freeport, Bartlett J. Flanagan of Bowdoinham, Rhegan Flanagan of Cornelius, N.C., and Benjamin Ambrose of Lubec; also numerous great-nieces and nephews.