Karen A. (McFadyen) Dennison of Malden died on Friday, October 30, 2026 at Tufts Medical Center in Boston after a long illness. She was 72.
She was born in Chelsea on August 20, 1954 to James McFadyen Sr. and Lillian (O’Neil) McFadyen, one of four children, and grew up in Revere, graduating from Revere High School in 1972. She earned a dental assistant’s certificate at Boston University and spent her whole working life in dentistry, as an assistant and then an office manager, finishing her career with the practice of Dr. Jay Epstein in Lynn.
She married Steven Dennison on October 12, 1975, and the couple settled in Malden, where they raised two children. She was a collector of Hummel figurines and Annalee dolls, a traveler who returned to Aruba more than once, and, above everything, a grandmother who did not miss a chance to be with her grandchildren.
She leaves Steven, her husband of 51 years; her daughter Adria Power and her husband Eric of Wilmington; her son Michael Dennison and his wife Kristen of Malden; her grandchildren Tyler, Andrew and Alexandra; her sister Kathleen Poirier and her husband William of Peabody; her brother James McFadyen Jr. of North Conway, New Hampshire; her sister Lynn Walsh and her husband Joseph of Needham; and nieces, nephews and a grandniece.
Visiting hours are Thursday, November 12 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Vertuccio Smith and Vazza Beechwood Home for Funerals, 262 Beach Street, Revere, with a funeral service there at 1 p.m. Burial is private. The family suggests memorial gifts to Breakthrough T1D, formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 62 Walnut Street, Suite 5, Wellesley.
Compiled from information published by Vertuccio Smith & Vazza Beechwood Home for Funerals, 262 Beach Street, Revere. Photograph courtesy of the family via Vertuccio Smith & Vazza. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
