Karla Draper

Karla Draper, A longtime Lafayette resident, passed away October 4, 2021, at the age of 96. Karla was born and raised in Bremen, Germany before meeting her groom, Robert, a US airman, and moving to Ohio. There, they started their family before moving to California with their family of 4 children: Bobby, Karen, Linda and Debra. Karla was widowed in 1975 and became the head of her family, a position she took pride in. Since that time, she became a mother in law, a grandmother of seven and great grandmother of six. Karla also served as a longtime nanny, and gained another family from it. She was also a regular caretaker for her grandchildren. Karla never learned to drive but that never stopped her; there was always someone who would take her where she needed to go. Her favorite pastimes included watching professional wrestling, soccer, QVC shopping and more recently baseball and western movies. She enjoyed some Frank Sinatra and only gave out full size candy bars at Halloween. Karla was known for her spitfire attitude and would always tell you what was on her mind, whether you wanted it or not. Although she was health conscious, she couldn’t refuse banana cream pie and black licorice jelly beans. She was also an amazing home cook who always had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies on hand and passed on many recipes to her family. She showed her love to her family through her words, her actions, her food, her open door; always sending a card on every holiday when her grandchildren were small and continuing to send birthday cards to everyone. She will be greatly missed by all that knew and loved her. 

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