Identical Names Mean Double Trouble

For Two Busy Women

By Nancy K. Crevier

For most people, there are six degrees of separation. For Karen Pierce and Karen Pierce, it is a lot less than that.

“Hello? Karen Pierce? This is Karen Pierce.” It is not uncommon for phone calls to go this way for the two Newtown women, because one Pierce looks like another in a phone book. Ever since Karen Pierce moved to town in 1999, Karen Pierce has been fielding her phone calls and vice versa. They have learned to take misplaced phone calls in stride.

“I keep Karen’s phone number on hand,” says the Karen Pierce newer to town, “and I say, ‘Oh, you want the organized, fit, Karen Pierce. All of my pictures are jumbled in a drawer.’”

But following a recent Newtown Bee article featuring one of them (“Mom Believes Parents Are Left Behind In Testing Decisions,” March 3, 2006), both of their phones have been ringing off the hook.

“People who know me,” said Karen Pierce, who has lived here with her husband, Dan, and children Danielle, 13, and Tim, 11, since 1971, “weren’t surprised that I would speak up on the subject of education. People know I’m not shy. I’m outspoken.”

What amazed her friends and associates, though, was that she had time for yet another endeavor in her life. The Karen Pierce they know runs a busy Creative Memories photo organization business, teaches yoga classes at Yoga Space in Brookfield and Fitness 4000 in Monroe, and has written a children’s yoga book.

“You’re making us look bad,” her Creative Memories clients complained when they phoned her last week. “When do you have time to take on the government?”

But despite the fact that essentially Karen Pierce agrees with Karen Pierce so far as educational testing goes, it was not the Creative Memories Karen Pierce interviewed for the article in The Bee.

The Karen Pierce advocating for her child in that recent article moved to Newtown in 1999. She and her husband, Jeffrey, have two boys, Doug and David. Most of her adult life has been spent in the western part of the United States, although she was raised in Delaware.

She is a former teacher with a master’s degree in science and tutors kindergartners through eighth graders in a variety of subjects.

“I’m usually very reserved,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve put myself forward to challenge something. I actually called Karen to apologize in advance for any extra or irate phone calls she might receive,” said Karen Pierce, the advocate.

Creative Memories Karen was used to wrong numbers even before the advocate Karen moved to town.

“My business line is one digit off from People’s Bank, so I’m forever getting bank calls. And my home number is just one digit off from another woman I know, so sometimes I get calls for her.” But she admits to being surprised when she received her first phone call for another Karen Pierce. “They wanted to set up a play date with Doug. I was confused, because my son is the same age as Karen’s son, Doug. But I didn’t know the person.”

Karen Pierce, the advocate, was not aware that another Karen Pierce lived in town until about two years ago when their prescriptions got mixed up.

“I looked at the medicine, and then at the address and realized there was a Karen Pierce across town on Nettleton Avenue.” The Karen Pierce who is newer to town lives on Chestnut Hill.

It explained the confusing phone calls she had received from people looking for guidance in organizing their photographs.

She laughs to remember the day that parked outside of My Place Restaurant on Queen Street was a car with a sign on it that read “Creative Memories — Karen Pierce.”

“We were going into My Place, too, and I went around to all of the tables asking, ‘Are you Karen Pierce? Are you Karen Pierce?’ My boys were ready to drop through the floor.”

Her hunt was successful, though, and it was the first time the two Karen Pierces met face to face. Luckily for their friends, while their names may be homographs, their appearances are different enough that they cannot be confused. Somewhat the same height, Creative Memories Karen Pierce is hazel-eyed with long, blond hair. Advocate Karen Pierce is a bit shorter, with short, frosted hair and blue-green eyes. Their smiles, though, are a standard fixture for both.

Since then, the women have traded many phone calls, business and social. Their children are used to hearing, “Hello? It’s Karen Pierce.” 

Despite the fact that Doug Pierce and Tim Pierce are in the same grade at Reed Intermediate School, their paths have not crossed there. Doug is in the green house there and Tim is in the blue house on the other side of the school. Doug plays in the orchestra, while Tim is in the band. So not even concerts bring the two Karen Pierces together at the school.

The women have yet to socialize with each other’s families.

“We travel in different groups,” said advocate Karen Pierce, “and Karen knows many more people than I do. I tend to lay low.”

Creative Memories Karen Pierce admits that she has “an edge. I have lived here so many years.”

They are not ruling out the possibility of a blossoming friendship, though. Said Creative Memories Karen, “We have to get together and have our husbands meet.”

That is, when their phones stop ringing.