On the evening before she and her family had planned to return overseas, Kyra Lynn Karr, a Southern Baptist missionary to Italy, was killed in a traffic accident, Aug. 13.
News reports indicate a tractor-trailer driver exited his vehicle to conduct a safety inspection but the safety brake was not engaged and the truck began to roll. The vehicle hit the pickup in which Karr was traveling, crushing it against the highway guardrail on U.S. 41 in Bartow County, Georgia. Karr, 30, died at the scene.
Her husband Reid graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2012 with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies in Intercultural Leadership. He and their two youngest children were transported to nearby hospitals, where they were treated and released. Their oldest child was not with them at the time.
The tractor-trailer driver, Ivan Delgado, 52, of Rome, New York, was arrested and charged with DUI, police said.
“The entire Southern Seminary is so deeply grieved at the the news of the death of Kyra Karr,” Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said in a statement. “We are praying urgently for Reid and their daughters. Kyra had committed her life to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the call of missions, to her husband and family. Her sudden death is so shocking and we can only imagine the grief borne by her family. Our confidence is in Christ, and in the assurance that nothing done for his sake is ever lost.”
The Karrs were appointed as International Mission Board missionaries in 2009 and have been serving in Rome. They were about to begin their third term of service after a brief stateside assignment.
Kyra Karr was a graduate of the University of Georgia and grew up in Tabernacle Baptist Church, Cartersville, Georgia. She and her family also were connected to Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. While at Southern Seminary, Kyra Karr was a student in the Seminary Wives Institute, where she met program director Mary Mohler.
“Several of my fellow Seminary Wives Institute teachers and I well remember Kyra,” Mary Mohler said in a statement. “She was a bright and energetic student who was eager to serve alongside Reid as a missionary. She cherished her role as wife and mother and sought to learn how to excel in all areas of her walk with the Lord. We are deeply grieved by her death and are praying for Reid, her daughters, and extended family.”
Karr is survived by her husband Reid; her children, Nolyn, Ellie, and Livia; her parents, Joseph and Karen Carp; her sisters, Chelsey Carp and Sydney Shadle. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Aug. 19, at Tabernacle Baptist Church, 112 E. Church St., Cartersville, Georgia, under the supervision of Parnick Jennings Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to Tabernacle Baptist Church for the Italian church plant Breccia Di Roma and its ministry efforts.
IMB writer Mark Kelly contributed to this report.