Candidate for
Member; California State Assembly; District 33; Democratic Party

Biography # Merrily Teresa Karr

Candidate, 33rd Assembly District

Merrily (Reichle) Karr was born in Chicago, IL, as were her two sisters. In the mid-1950's, she moved with her entire family to Clearwater, FL, a lovely beach-side town on The Gulf of Mexico. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and later, two brothers, comprised this tightly-knit family.

After completing High School in Clearwater, Merrily joined her older sister in Los Angeles as did her immediate family six months later. She worked as a secretary at Welton Beckett & Assoc. and there met her husband. They later had two sons. Though now divorced, she remains friendly with her former husband who lives in Los Angeles. The Karr's firstborn son lives in Taipei, Taiwan, and is perfecting his Mandarin and teaching ESL. Their second son is a curator at a Los Angeles museum. Merrily's second son attended a high school in the area and his wife also is from the District area.

Having started to work at age fifteen at the Pinellas County Courthouse in Clearwater, FL, (reproducing maps of the county), Merrily also assisted her family with finances. She continued to work two days a week after her marriage as secretary to the Medical Director for the Peace Corps at UCLA. She also continued to financially help out her mother and two brothers after her father died in 1969.

Merrily did not attend college until she was twenty-eight but her sons, both Ph.D.'s, have indicated that, at the time, going along with her to class affected their choice as young men to pursue higher education. Loyola-Marymount University and UCLA also affected Merrily's interest in justice issues and politics bringing to the fore her having been selected as Clearwater High School's representative to Girl's State at the capitol in Tallahassee, FL, during the 1960's.

Though Merrily has devoted a great deal of her time in life to volunteerism--as Coordinator for the Westside fundraising introduction for Five Acres (a home for abused children in Pasadena, CA), as assistant to the Coordinator for the Gray Davis campaign for state Comptroller and as yard-duty attendant (and much more!) at her sons' grammar school, she also is a published book writer. CONFETTI, (published in the 1980's) is back-in-print and recently has been accepted by California Polytechnic State University at the Women's Center. THE GRINGA AND THE REVOLUTIONARY, though written more than ten years ago is soon to be published, and is a semi-autobiographical, metaphoric in content, political novel that recounts the connection among a Mexican family of five sons near Mexico City (one of whom moves to California), the guerrillero, Jenaro Vasquez Rojas, and an American female. (This area currently was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times newspaper relative to previous Human Rights activity in Mexico).

Acquainted with the country of Mexico since the 1980's, Merrily speaks Spanish and has made many friends there. She conducted two businesses in Mexico--one, MRK Enterprises, in which she manufactured furniture for Pier I Imports, Inc. and Williams-Sonoma in maquiladoras in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico, the other, Learning Vacation, a tourist/education organization in Cuernavaca, Mexico's language center. She also volunteered to be Co-coordinator with Cinematografia Morelos to save (from the bulldozer!) the house in which author, Malcolm Lowry, wrote UNDER THE VOLCANO.

When Merrily returned to the United States in 1998 after living in Mexico for four years, (during the peso devaluation) she joined her younger sister, two nephews and their families in Colorado as, respectively, her sons were in Taiwan and recently married. In Colorado, she was the Local Government Representative, Colorado Rural Development Council for South Central Colorado, arranged the US/Mexico Art Exchange for the Millennium with a Mini-grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts and procured a Sister City (there are over 2000 in the US with foreign cities) for Trinidad, Colorado, with Tepoztlan, Mexico. (Merrily continues this effort with San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (possibly with the city of Toulouse, France) and will provide the lecture she gave to the United States Department of State, Arlington, VA--Foreign Service Office in 1998 on Ethnocentrism Theory--The Differences between Collective and Individualist Societies for the California Rural Development Council in the spring of this year).

As a registered Democrat, Merrily's awareness, attitude and action have been influenced by having raised two sons, her personal creativity, her varied experiences in life and her biculturalism. Her issues of concern range from public safety, education, tourism, campaign finance reform, child welfare/mentoring, area growth and immigration.

Considering today's globalization challenges that exist at every level--national, state and local, she accepts Robert Reich's current consensus that America must again function at the `grassroots' level to nurture a sense of community and responsibility. One of Merrily's attributes is success in bringing together divergent cultural factions within society. Not only has she been a partner in an Inn in Mexico, but also has lived in campesino (peasant) villages. She not only has worked at the Los Angeles Children's Dependency Court as a Legal Assistant to County Council and as Case Manager for The Partners Mentoring Association in Trinidad, CO. Awareness, attitude, action and accessibility...indeed.

Merrily is happy to be back in her home state of California where the vitality of the people and their agendas combine to inspire not only herself but those in the world who seek to make a difference. Representation reflects the hearts and minds of all people in a democratic society...a system in which Merrily is honored to be a part.