Karla Dara Welch
8 November 1967-
24 November 2019

Kara Dara Welch (nee Sharp), of Wentzville, MO, passed away Sunday, November 24, 2019 at the age of 52. Loving Wife of Tracy Welch; beloved daughter of Sumelee Sharp and the late Karl W. Richter; devoted mother of Zack (Courtney) Welch and Sage Welch; dearest sister of Anfela (Kunal) Parekh, and Pamela (Eddie) Sharp-Nicholson; cherished grandmother of Liliian Welch; treasured niece of Betty Mae Siersma; dear friend of Steve Button.

Karla worked for First Community Credit Union at the Cool Springs branch. She loved spending time going to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, flower gardening, glass art, and photography. Karla and Tracy loved to fly in their airplane and take photographs of nature and being in the outdoors. Karla cherished her time with members of the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron learning from them about her father, becoming part of their families as much as she became part of theirs. She cherished her granddaughter Lillian Welch. Karla loved all she knew and was loved by all.

From Tracy Welch, husband of Karla Richter Welch!!!! His thoughts in a tribute on her absence in his life now!!!

Two weeks since Karla left us. Last night the first of many for me, completely alone. Not all that long ago, I was bothered by some of Karla's night time habits and all the noises she made. I miss them intensely now but over time, I'll get used to being alone and all the little noises our house makes without help from Karla. I wrote some words for the minister to read at Karla's memorial. They might be past- ed below if Facebook lets me; lot's of words. I still don't know how to work this damn thing. Getting old, I guess.

Tracy’s thoughts about Karla would have been strong enough for her to read this out loud to you. I'm not; someone else has to read it for me. This is a story of a few important moments and people in Karla's life that I think she would like everyone to hear.

A question that might weigh on some minds is how did I manage to marry such an amazing woman? I'm still not sure how that happened but we met on a trip to Van- couver, BC to experience the World’s Fair in 1986. I was a van driver, in charge of hauling luggage, camping gear, and a couple passengers. For some reason, possibly because Karla and her sister Angela were sort of close to my age, and more likely the fact Karla was good looking, I gravitated toward them every chance I could. Not only was Karla a cutie, she was fun to be around and had an unusual accent that I thought was cool. The girls rode in my van most of the trip to and from Mountain Home, Idaho and when we unloaded all the luggage at the end of the trip, Karla left her purse in the van. At that point I had her address so I took it upon myself to deliver the purse to her house. Next thing you know, we started hanging out, fell in love, and that didn’t exactly delight her mom and step dad. She always denied leaving her purse on the van on purpose. Either way, on accident or by design, I’m glad she did. Only a few months after returning Karlas purse, I left the Air Force and Mountain Home, intending to go to school at the University of Ida- ho, in Moscow. By chance, Karla also planned on attending the U of I where we were able to hang out in earnest. Our tiny family began on October 9, 1987 followed by a spur of the moment wedding on January 9, 1988 at a pink church with purple shag carpet in Mountain Home by a musician turned minister that once played fiddle for The Charlie Daniels Band. This January marks 32 years of marriage.

Now that Karla made an honest man of me, we moved to Moscow, Idaho so I could finish school. Karla worked at a grocery store deli for minimum wage and more importantly, really good medical benefits for our baby, Zack. Moscow, back then, was a small town with two grocery stores so Karla probably met almost everyone in town at one time or another. Karla was always nice and pleasant to everyone, no matter what they did to her or how she felt. A woman working at a bank nearby the store noticed how wonderfully Karla always treated people and asked her to apply for a job at the bank. She did, and began her lifelong career in banking. Moscow is also where Karla met some of her lifelong friends, one of which is here today, Steve Button. Some of you might remember Steve as the Officiant for Zack and Courtney’s wedding. Steve isn't really a friend, he's family. Steve is one of the first among a rather large group of people Karla considered close family, people she loves dearly.

Shortly after we started dating, Karla showed me a tiny battered picture of her dad’s head she got out of a locket, telling me he was a fighter pilot that got shot down in Vietnam before she was born and that he was probably from some dinky town in Michigan called Holly. That’s all she knew of Karl Richter until 2000. A pivotal moment in Karla's life has to be credited to a new thing back then; Google, because it turned up a few facts about Holly and Karl. One of those facts changed Karla's life immeasurably and grew her family to enormous proportions. That one fact was a phone number, which Karla called, hoping to obtain a better picture than the beat up fragment of her Dad she carried around in her purse. When Karla called the number, a woman in Holly, the late Dottie Fagan, answered the phone. Karla was really nervous, very reluctant to disclose the fact she is Karl Richter’s daughter, believing Dottie might think badly of Karl. Karla asks Dottie for a picture, any picture of Karl, and Dottie asks why she’d want something like that. Karla abruptly hangs up, embarrassed to say she's Karl's little girl. Thank goodness for caller ID.

A few seconds later the phone rings, Karla answers, and it’s Dottie on the other end, pleading for Karla to not hang up. They talk for a few minutes, Dottie managing to extract Karla’s relationship to Karl. It just so happened Dottie was one of Karl’s elementary school teachers and neighbor and wanted to do much, much more than send a picture. To say Dottie was overjoyed to find out Karl has a daughter is understatement. Dottie and her Husband Bill insisted Karla visit Holly so they could introduce her dad’s school friends, show her the town, and most significantly, her father’s family. We went to Holly for Memorial Day and it blew all expectations out of the water. Karla was instantly adopted as a daughter by every person she met, in part because she brought Karl Richter back to life, in a way, and because she has a kind of infectious charisma. All these new people in Karla’s life began to give her dad color and in return Karla gives them joy, love, and family member status. Later in the weekend, Marty, his future wife Dawn, and Allen introduce themselves, with Dairy Queen milkshakes, starting a love affair for her newly discovered cousins. This particular weekend is the genesis of an entirely new extended family, unknown for decades, the start of a Memorial Day tradition, and an incredible journey of discovery about her Dad, the people he knew, and lives he affected. Karla's family is about to get really, really big and it's a good thing too because she has an inexhaustible supply of love to share with all of them.

The next Memorial Day, Karla met one of her most cherished people, her Aunt Betty, Karl Richter’s sister. She’s here with us now. Aunt Betty loves Karla as she would her own daughter and Karla loves her too, as a bonus mom. Also by this time, word has spread far and wide that Karl Richter, an actual Air Force hero, nearly legend, has a daughter and she's awesome, just like her dad. Pictures of Karl from the Korat, Thailand VFW post arrive in the mail and people from all over the place send her information, pictures, and invites to events. Two events became life highlights; Visiting the Air Force Academy for the 2008 exemplar dedication and the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron reunions in Willow City, Texas. Both events grew Karla's family again. Karla found a special place in her heart for the class of 2008, with some becoming part of her close family, like Katie Evans, here with us today. It's safe to say Karla genuinely loves Katie. Few days went by that Karla didn't mention her or show me a picture from Facebook.

Karla absolutely loved the Willow City reunions. They were fun and it gave her a way of expressing the love she wanted to give her Dad. The Thud drivers, maintainers, family members, and everyone that attended the reunions clearly loved seeing Karla and gave her all the love they could. One person in particular from the reunions stands out from everyone else, John Shatz. Karla adopted John, he's like a father to her and he's here with us today too, all the way from San Antonio.

Two words can sum up the way Karla lived her life: love; family. She treated most people as though they’re family and gave them a little of her love, even if she barely knew them. Some people, like her Dad, received an overflow of love even though she could never be held in his arms or hear him say anything. I hope Karl was waiting, arms spread wide, ready for the biggest bear hug he never had the chance to experience, and said those three words Karla wanted to hear for so long, “I love you.”

All of us are grieving today. Steve Button said something to me yesterday that should be shared with everyone. He said the price of love is grief.

“I'll be grieving for the rest of my life”