184th Post - Death of Karen Begin/Darian O'Toole

I read this afternoon of the death of radio personality Darian O'Toole. Her real name was Karen Begin, although sometimes she spelled her first name as "Karin".

I met her in 1990 and got to know her a little bit. We went to the same Hallowe'en party in Kentville that year. I wouldn't call that a date, and I doubt if you would, either.

But we did have quite a few phone conversations for about 6 weeks there. She'd go on about the people at the station she didn't like, her on-air partner at the time (she liked him, and he works for a local newspaper nowadays), and the like. I knew she was very ambitious, and felt that she had the talent to back up this ambition.

She left that Kentville radio station in 1991 (I have a thing for dates, ok?) a short time after her second "spat" with Kiefer Sutherland took place. He claimed not to know her at all; she asserted that they met while he was filming "The Bay Boy" in 1984 or so. Footage of background extras on the set of the film showed a much younger Karen, or at least Karen said that person was she.

I have a tv appearance or two of her on an old vhs tape from the spring of 1991. If I can ever find that tape, assuming it still plays properly, I'll dub it to dvd for posterity's sake.

This was a considerable period of time ago, when I knew her and we'd talk in the evenings. I enjoyed those chats. Something like an old boyfriend re-entered her life and she said she'd rather be with him than become interested in me. Pretty much end of story. It hurt at first, quite a bit to tell the truth; but life goes on and things happen for a reason and all that tommyrot.

I still have a couple of hand-written letters from Karen at home. I think I know where they are. I think I may dig them out over the next day or two and re-read them for the first time in years.

Karen is from Dartmouth, across the harbour from Halifax. I am guessing that her funeral, or a funeral of some sort, or a memorial service, will take place there, as her parents continue to live there. If I see an obituary online, I'll post the link in this blog.

People have been googling "Darian O'Toole" all day since the news broke and chancing upon this blog because I mentioned Karen a week or so back. I am sorry that I don't have more information to report than that she died in an Oakland hospital on March 31st from a respiratory failure while recovering from a broken leg.

If I do hear anything else, which is unlikely, I'll report it here.

My condolences to Karen's family.

Bevboy, who will miss the raven-haired radio wench.