Nick Vlahos: Nick in the AM: Karen Fulte dies unexpectedly; founded Fulton Sheen museum in El Paso

Aug. 1--Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who spent most of his youth in Peoria, is one step from becoming a saint in the Catholic Church.

But one of his most ardent followers in his Woodford County hometown won't be here to see Sheen's upcoming beatification.

Karen Fulte, who in El Paso established a museum dedicated to Sheen, died recently. She was 70.

Fulte's body was found July 23 at her El Paso residence, according to Woodford County Coroner Tim Ruestman. She had suffered a stroke.

"Very shocking, very sad circumstances here," Justin Stoller, Fulte's El Paso-based attorney, said Wednesday. "None of this was expected at all."

An Indiana native, Fulte moved to El Paso about 30 years ago to establish an insurance business. She located one door from Sheen's birthplace, above a hardware store on Front Street.

Sheen was born in 1895 and with his family relocated to Peoria a few years later. He became a leading Catholic theologian and the first televangelist, courtesy of his popular 1950s-era TV show "Life is Worth Living."

Fulte, who remembered Sheen's TV show, lived next door to Sheen's cousin in El Paso. Fulte took these encounters as signs from God and decided to create a permanent memorial to Sheen.

That took the form of The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Spiritual Centre, opened in 2000 in a former railroad depot in El Paso.

"I'm doing what I've been guided to do," Fulte told the Journal Star for a 2013 story. "It's just been a spiritual journey."

The El Paso museum contains few of Sheen's possessions. It features exhibits about Sheen's life and also offers for sale his books and videos.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria maintains a Sheen museum at the Spalding Pastoral Center in Peoria. All sorts of Sheen artifacts are housed there.

Peoria also is to be the site of a ceremony that marks Sheen's beatification, which was confirmed last month after Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to the archbishop.

No date has been set for the ceremony. Diocese officials hope it's this year, which is the 100th anniversary of Sheen's ordination as a priest.

Fulte's museum is among few tangible indicators that El Paso was the birthplace of Sheen, who died in 1979. The facility is closed until further notice, according to Stoller.

"There's a lot that's going to have to be figured out by her family," he said. "We hope that somebody will be able to carry it on. Those were her wishes."

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