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Karen Alleman was a Southern lady, transplanted to New Mexico.  I first met her about three years ago when we rendezvoused at the same place to pick up different loads.  As we talked, I detected her Southern accent, and I couldn’t avoid seeing that she was “dressed up”, compared to a lot of the escorts I see on the road.

As we talked, I learned that she was immensely unhappy with the person with whom she worked.  I knew both people and I think it more was a personality conflict, rather than there being a “good guy” and a “bad guy”.  As I saw her over the following months, she still talked about the conflict and was agonizing about going out on her own as an independent.  When she finally did so, I introduced her to some of the brokers and other escorts with whom I work.

At the time, Karen owned a house and some property in the mountains west of Tularosa, NM.  It was about 90 miles from El Paso, where her employer was based…and so she missed out on a lot of potential runs.  She had horses at the time, and didn’t want to give them up.  Eventually she came to realize that she would have to move if she was going to succeed in the pilot car business.  She needed to be near where the action is: where the loads pass through on a daily or almost hourly basis.  For a while, she lived in her camping trailer behind the house of Carol Cross, an escort in Clovis, NM.  Later, she bought a house in Melrose, NM, which is about 30 miles west of Clovis.  She spent many hours and a lot of money trying to get that house in liveable condition.

Toward the end of last year, and durng the first three or four months of 2008, Karen struggled like the rest of us did.  Like all of us, she had some difficulty making ends meet.  She was trying to keep enough running money, make her house payment, and also pay for extensive repairs on her new house.  Somehow, she got a job offer to become a company escort for a steel company in San Angelo, TX.  It wasn’t a good deal for most successful pilot car operators, in my opinion, but it was a steady check…and that was important to Karen after struggling for so many months.  I last saw her about six weeks ago when we crossed paths in Tucumcari, NM.  She was excited about beginning her new job.

Karen was a mature woman, and a classic Southern belle.  I didn’t know how old she was because I knew instinctively that you just didn’t ask a Southern belle those kinds of questions.  She probably was in her late 40′s or early 50′s.  I understand that she had one son who lives in Lafayette, LA, and a brother who lives in Victoria, TX.

Karen stood out in her appearance.  I never saw her in jeans and a T-shirt.  When she went on a run, she had a business-type suit with pants and a light jacket, and some pin or piece of jewelry.  She wore makeup and made sure her hair looked just right.  She wasn’t out to entice or seduce anyone…she just wanted to look and act professionally.  She did it well.

She was not new to the trucking industry.  For some time, she apparently had her own hotshot company, operating out of the Louisiana/Mississippi area.  We never talked that much about it, so I don’t have any details.

I cannot write about Karen Alleman, without mentioning her devotion to her best friend, Ginger.  Ginger was her dog…and Karen took her everywhere with her.  Ginger was with Karen on that fateful day this past week.  The police later found Ginger in an animal shelter.  I can only imagine that someone saw her at or near the scene of the accident and took her there.

Karen will be missed by her friends and family.  She definitely left an impression on the people she touched.