Dr. Kamala Karri's Obituary
Dr. Kamala Kumari Karri, 60, of Germantown, Tennessee passed away at home, surrounded by family, on February 13, 2023.
Born in India on December 1962, Kamala spent her childhood in the rural community of Aravalli, India, growing up with her siblings and many cousins and playing amongst the rice fields. She moved to Kansas in 1981 where she pursued an associate’s degree in nursing which ignited a 39-year career dedicated to patient care. After relocating to Brooklyn, NY, Kamala worked for seven years as an intensive critical care nurse while also raising two children and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing at State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate. She relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, and earned a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Alabama, Huntsville after which she began practicing as a Nurse Practitioner. Eventually, Kamala and her family settled in Memphis where she spent over 15 years at the Transplant Institute at Methodist Hospital through 2022, managing the health of recent transplant recipients. Never deterred by age or circumstance, in 2015, at the age of 52, she graduated with a doctorate in nursing from the University of Tennessee – an accomplishment that always filled her and her family with a sense of pride.
Beyond her academic and professional achievements, Kamala was the anchor of stability to her family and an unceasing example of love, compassion, patience, and kindness towards everyone she knew. She married her husband Someswara in 1981 and later on gave birth to two children, Saradasri and Sashank. She was an active member of the Indian Cultural Center and Temple (ICCT) and the Telugu Association of Memphis where she was committed to strengthening community bonds. On a personal level, she enjoyed hosting her friends and family at social gatherings. Kamala was always dependable and everyone in the community knew that she would be there to provide support to those enduring their own personal struggles, while in her own quiet way, she bravely faced a 13 year battle with breast cancer.
Instead of letting her struggles define her, Kamala focused on living in the present. She immersed herself in supporting her husband, children, and grandchild, and providing compassionate care to her patients, all while continuing medical treatments. She found joy in the ordinary moments with her family and sought to broaden her horizons while traveling across the globe. She had an adventurous spirit that took her on a road trip across the northwest to visit National Parks, a cruise around Antarctica, and trips across Europe and India, including spiritual pilgrimage hikes through the Himalayan Mountains, and to Mount Kailasa. She took every experience and found the subtle beauty and deeper meaning in it as she sought to enjoy the short time she was given. She was truly an inspiration to her family and will be dearly missed.
Kamala was preceded in death by her father, Dr. Satyanarayana Reddy Satti. She is survived by her husband Dr. Someswara Reddy Karri; two children, Dr. Saradasri Wellikoff (Nathaniel) and Sashank Karri; one grandchild, Aiden Wellikoff; her mother, Sita Rama Siva Bhagyavati Satti; three siblings, Uma Konala, Dr. Suryakumar Reddy, and Rama Reddy; and numerous in-laws, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
A visitation and memorial service will be held at 9:30 a.m., Thursday, February 16 at Memorial Park Funeral Home, 5668 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN 38119. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Susan G Komen foundation.
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