Mill Valley, CA

Karyn Hancock Kraft, 62, died peacefully at home in Mill Valley on May 18. She was born on September 17, 1962 in Stuart, Florida, and moved with her family to Mill Valley in 1969. After attending Mill Valley's elementary schools, Karyn graduated from Marin Academy and California College of Arts and Crafts, where she majored in graphic design.

After a successful career as a graphic designer in the Bay Area, Karyn fell in love with sub-Sahara Africa. In Mfuwe, Zambia she served as the Production Manager for Tribal Textiles, a fabric design workshop that made apparel and cloth accessories. Karyn had for many years designed and made decorative quilts as a hobby. Combining her own quilt-making skills with a desire to provide employment for local women, Karyn then founded her own quilting business there: She designed decorative quilt covers, after which women in the area who she had hired and taught the craft, quilted the covers onto cloth backing. Many friends and family members possess and treasure quilts that Karyn made and gave as gifts. Unfortunately, she was forced to terminate her business prematurely after contacting a severe brain illness that forced her to return to the U.S.

Karyn was a force of nature. She had high energy and a wonderful sense of humor. She was unwavering in her support of her friends, sustaining relationships that lasted for life. As she put it, she loved everyone in her life. She was a blessing to all those whose lives she touched.

Karyn's cause of death was a progressive, rare lung disease, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, for which there is no known cure, which afflicted Karyn for nine years.

Karyn's family is deeply grateful to the friends who offered wonderful and invaluable support over the many years that she was house-bound during her illness, and especially grateful to her eight-year loving caregiver, Rachael Williams.

Karyn is survived by her mother, Betsey Pooley Cutler (John); her father, Crispin Saeger Kraft (the late Jane Kraft); her sister, Susan Saeger Kraft (Patrick Scott); her nieces, Isabella and Georgia Scott; her aunt, Elyn Pooley Brennan; her cousins, Thomas Brennan, Carol Brennan Baeder and Christopher Brennan; her brothers, Daniel (Mitsuko), Jeffry (Carina) and Kenneth (Abby Gale) Cutler, and nephews and nieces Nathan, Benjamin and Leona Cutler; her aunt Lauralee Kraft Yee (David), cousins Marissa Kraft Kennedy, Lauren Yee and nephew David Yee and cousins George and Elise Wing.

Plans for a private gathering of family and friends are pending. Donations in Karyn's honor may be made to the Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery, 1132 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur, California 94939.