No Bitterness at LaBorde Funeral : Memorial: Family, friends praise the mortally burned bookkeeper for her kindness and sense of humor. The circumstances of her death and alleged assailant are not mentioned.

Karen Marie LaBorde loved country music, the Los Angeles Lakers, singing in the church choir and dancing, but her strongest affection was always reserved for her family and faith in God.

That’s how 350 family members and friends, packed into the Evangelical Free Church of Orange on Saturday, remembered the 41-year-old Orange bookkeeper who died Tuesday after being doused with gasoline and set on fire, allegedly by a man infuriated over a late $150 paycheck.

At her memorial service, LaBorde was praised for her dedication to work, her kindness, her willingness to help someone in need, and her sense of humor.

And most of all, loved ones talked about her religious conviction and how it helped her through tough times, even as she lay dying at the UCI Medical Center.

“She had many hardships, she had pain,” said her sister, Carole Hoffman. “She had just about any heartache a woman could have. Yet, she loves the Lord through it all.”

Her husband, Jerry LaBorde, was composed as he spoke briefly during the service, thanking everyone for their support and talking about the love the couple had for each other.

“She left me two beautiful children and a lifetime of memories,” he said.

It wasn’t a day for anger or bitterness. The circumstances of LaBorde’s death and Jonathan Daniel D’Arcy, the 30-year-old La Habra janitor accused of killing her, weren’t mentioned during the service.

Instead, Pastor Rick Hann recounted LaBorde’s life from her childhood in Ft. Wayne, Ind. She was tiny, barely five feet tall, Hann said, “but as the saying goes, good things come in small packages,” he said.

The girl nicknamed “Fluffy” was her grandmother’s favorite, Hann said. It was the grandmother who taught LaBorde how to bake and cook, sew and crochet. The family moved to California when she was 16.

LaBorde was always sending a card of encouragement to a friend in trouble, always willing to lend a helping hand, Hann said.

“One of Kari’s motto was, ‘A hug is better than a handshake,’ ” the pastor said. Then reading from a newspaper cartoon, he added, “Heaven is a great big hug that lasts forever.”

LaBorde’s twin brother, Daren Leiter, spoke about how his sister had helped him when his wife died of cancer three months ago.

The night before she died, Leiter had taken his young daughter to visit her. Leiter recalled how his sister, seeing that Leiter was not quite mastering the skills of parenthood, spent more than an hour untangling the daughter’s messy hair.

“I cried on the way home . . . to have been so blessed to have a sister so caring,” Leiter said.

Some mentioned her easy smile.

“Every image of Kari was one of her smiling,” said Scott Heinrichs, who sang with LaBorde in the church choir. “She did that a lot.”

And then there was her sense of humor.

LaBorde and her siblings used to tell jokes at family gatherings to see who would cause the biggest laugh.

“Kari won pretty often,” Hoffman said.

While noting that LaBorde was an industrious and exemplary worker, her boss at Quintessence Building Maintenance Co. recalled LaBorde was one who placed priorities on her family and God.

“When I interviewed her for a possible promotion,” Jim McPeak recalled, “she said, ‘I’ve got to have some flex hours to take (15-year-old daughter) Renee to the dentist for her braces. . . . So I put on a piece of paper: ‘Condition of employment: Renee’s braces.’ ”

At a news conference before the memorial service, Hann said community support has been tremendous, but the family may face some hard times ahead. With Jerry LaBorde out of work as a computer systems analyst, Karen LaBorde had been the sole source of income.

“The family was not a well-to-do family to begin with,” Hann said. “The financial hardship that they’ll face until he can find a job to support the children . . . it’s going to be tough for awhile.”

Meanwhile, D’Arcy, who could face the death penalty if convicted of killing LaBorde, is being held in protective custody after telling his defense attorney that he feared for his safety while in jail, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Eugene Lutito.

Lutito said inmates may often target people suspected of certain crimes, such as child molestation or crimes against women, although Lutito said he was not aware of any threats made against D’Arcy.

* WORKPLACE ASSAULTS: LaBorde may have been the target of an unprovoked attack for mundane reasons, experts say. B4