Karla Burns was unforgettable, immensely talented, funny and kind
Funerals are thought provoking. And just as my parents once told me, the older you get the more funerals you’ll go to. Some have surprises, such as the time a daughter got up to speak about her deceased dad and no one knew he had a daughter, not even his second wife. Oops.
Funerals are sad because you know you’ll not see that person again. And when that person was a joyful addition to your life it makes it even more difficult.
That’s why I cried through a lot of the service for Karla Burns. I loved her dearly. She was an unforgettable, immensely talented, funny and kind person who will be sorely missed by many.
Karla would have loved the music, the stories about her that brought laughter and tears. She would have been so pleased to see how so many people of all ages, race and religions gathered in her honor. Sitting there holding my Kleenex that was pretty much in shreds, I thought how she would have grinned, showing off her gap-toothed smile.
To say she was something special is a vast understatement. When Karla was young she got up her nerve and went to New York to audition for a spot in the chorus for the musical “Show Boat.” Instead she landed the principal role of Queenie. After touring the show ended up on Broadway and in 1984 she earned a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
After touring with the show in England she was the first African American to receive the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a musical.
It was back to Wichita after many years of performing in shows that took her to New York, Europe and Africa.
In 2015 I interviewed her for Wichita Magazine. Since she was a friend it was an easy, fun interview over lunch. When I asked her if she wanted dessert she said she was too full, but wanted to order one to take home. “I’ll think of you later when I’m enjoying this,” she said with a wink.
Here are some of my favorite Karla quotes from that interview:
“When I saw South Pacific, I thought, ‘Wow! You can do the singing and the acting thing. You could sing in a play! I knew that was something I wanted to do.”
“I wasn’t the normal, skinny, pretty girl so it was up to me to learn to move this body and shake that thing because nobody is, and I mean nobody is, going to shake it for you.”
“People say God winks at some people. Well, he has a strobe light going on me.”
That’s for sure. She was a light in many people’s lives, whether she was teaching them to sing, sitting in the audience watching her perform, a fellow cast member, or just a pal spending time talking and laughing.
She talked often about the importance of kindness. But when I asked her what adjective she would like to be used when someone described her she rolled those big brown eyes, grinned and said, “Magnificent!”
And she was.