{"id":197877,"date":"2026-09-06T05:53:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/197877\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T05:53:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:53:03","slug":"halligan-karen-obituaries-winnipeg-free-press-passages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/197877\/","title":{"rendered":"HALLIGAN KAREN – Obituaries – Winnipeg Free Press Passages"},"content":{"rendered":"

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KAREN HALLIGAN<\/p>\n

Surrounded by her family and close friends, Karen Halligan, 82, passed away during the afternoon of August 26, 2026, following months of an unknown illness. Karen will be missed immensely by her immediate and extended family and many close friends.
Karen is predeceased by her mother Dorothy (Drobot) and father William Babisky, along with her youngest sister Donna Boulet (Babisky). She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Don Halligan, her children, David Halligan (Julie), and Cindy Halligan (Tyler), her middle sister Valerie Babisky, and her and Don’s cat Bob Cratchet. She also loved and cared for many animals including Benji (dog), Westie (dog), Billy (cat), and Cingy (cat).
Karen was born July 11, 1944, in Winnipeg, Manitoba and was the eldest daughter of Dorothy and William Babisky. She attended Isaac Brock school up until grade nine and then completed high school at Daniel McIntyre. During her grade school years, she helped care for her two younger sisters, Valerie and Donna. Caring for others led her to complete her Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) training at the Manitoba Institute of Technology (Red River Polytechnic). As an LPN, she worked at Misericordia Hospital until she had her children. During her children’s teen years, she completed cardiac and audiology training for conducting heart and hearing tests; she did this in medical clinics and care homes. The last 20 plus years of her career were spent at Assiniboine Medical Clinic where she thoroughly enjoyed caring and interacting with patients.
Outside of work, Karen also spent a lot of her free time caring for others. Naturally this included Don, David, and Cindy, but she also gave a lot to her extended family, and to her larger social group. She excelled at cooking and baking, which she brought to many family and friends’ gatherings. When she wasn\u2019t looking after the needs of other people, she enjoyed playing cards, and watching the Winnipeg Jets and Blue Bombers and other sports with her and Don\u2019s family and close friends. Karen thrived on being social up until the end of her life. She thoroughly enjoyed talking with people. It could be her sister Valerie, her closest friends, people she knew while attending her children’s extracurricular activities, or people she had just met while completing errands. Being social and interacting with others is how Karen needed to live and how she showed her love for others.
Unfortunately, following her Fall 2025 throat surgery to remove a small contained cancerous tumor, her quality of life decreased, including her ability to talk, eat, and swallow. During the first half of 2026, she had many medical appointments and hospital visits, which demonstrated for her family the upmost importance of advocating for your loved one’s medical needs and quality of life. Ironically, Karen herself modelled this behaviour, often advocating and caring for others who needed the medical system; this was especially true for her husband, children and other family members.
Although the last few months of 2026 were incredibly difficult for Don, David, and Cindy, they wish to extend a special thanks to Dr. Cory Knickle, Karen’s family doctor; he always took the time to listen patiently to Karen’s concerns while providing attentive and compassionate medical care. Her family also expresses their heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) team at the Health Sciences Centre of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The family sends special thanks to Dr. Asher Mendelson, nurses Jane, Shannon, and Brenda, and the respiratory therapy staff. The MICU team showed the utmost kindness and compassion to Karen, as well as Don, David, and Cindy, which eased the difficulties of her last days.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the MICU at the Health Sciences Centre (specify the MICU to the Health Sciences Centre Foundation) or one of the Winnipeg no-kill animal foundations.
A small gathering of family and friends to celebrate Karen’s life is expected to occur during the spring of 2027; family and friends will be directly invited as this respects her and Don’s wishes for a small gathering.<\/p>\n

Chapel Lawn Funeral Home
204-885-9715<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tribute Link: www.chapellawn.ca<\/p>\n

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Sep 05, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adjust Text Size: A+ A- KAREN HALLIGAN Surrounded by her family and close friends, Karen Halligan, 82, passed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[629,628,240,626,625,84,627],"class_list":["post-197877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-deaths","tag-in-memorium","tag-manitoba","tag-obituaries","tag-passages","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-free-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}