Karen Deann Beeks spent a lifetime working to advance women, beginning with her daughters before moving on to herself and then the world.

Mrs. Beeks died Aug. 4 in Littleton following complications from a stroke July 9. She was 66.

Born Karen Schmidt in Williston, N.D., she was preparing to go to college when her brother died. Instead, she went to work, and at 21 married Carl Bartels. They had two daughters, Karlona and Kirsten, before they divorced in 1966.

Mrs. Beeks worked as an engineering technician at Amerada Petroleum, where she met engineer Wayne Beeks.

"Our boss introduced us," he recalled. "She was just a really nice person, and I liked her kids."

The two married in 1971, and Beeks later adopted her two children.

The family moved to Calgary, Alberta, when Beeks was transferred, but by the end of 1972, Mrs. Beeks was pregnant and he had been transferred again, to Jakarta, Indonesia. Mrs. Beeks stayed in Canada to give birth.

"I held off going for as long as I could, but Kandyce was kind of a slow-comer," Beeks said. "I was finally on a drilling rig out in the ocean when I found out she'd had a baby."

Within weeks, Mrs. Beeks and their three children, including the newborn Kandyce, were en route to Indonesia.

"It was pretty risky, thinking back, of taking a 2-week-old baby over there," Beeks said.

"She was more in favor of it than I was. She loved the people, and we loved the food, and she loved going down to the markets and just seeing all the crafts."

They lived there for three years, returning to Indonesia for another stint in the early 1990s.

In 1975, the family moved to Denver, and Mrs. Beeks went back to school, beginning at Arapahoe Community College and eventually earning bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Colorado at Denver. She founded a chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society, at Arapahoe Community College and maintained a 4.0 average.

"She studied really hard and she wouldn't accept anything less than A," Beeks said.

In her early 40s, Mrs. Beeks became an advocate for women.

She spent a decade with the Legislative Breakfast and coordinated conventions on women's issues, including the 2003 "Trafficking and Trade Conference" and "Beijing and Beyond: Colorado Perspectives on the Global Woman." Initially, her husband had more conservative leanings, but she converted him.

"We used to kid about this, but when you go to college and take political science, you come out of there with a certain political belief which I didn't share at all," Wayne Beeks said.

"And then over the years, we pretty much had the same one. I was probably more radical than she was. She was the one that had all the common sense."

She became particularly involved with human trade, co-editing the book Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry.

"She could see that there was something really bad going on out there, and she just tried to do her two bits' worth," Beeks said.

In addition to her husband and three daughters, Mrs. Beeks is survived by sisters Sharon Moline and Donna Goranson and brother Ronald Schmidt.

A memorial service was held.Donations may be made to the Denver Dumb Friends League, 2080 S. Quebec St., Denver, CO 80231.