Teacher Camilli a tireless advocate for her Santa Rosa kids

The children of Santa Rosa’s Lincoln Elementary School who were lucky enough to be assigned to Mrs. Camilli’s class were getting more than a teacher.

They were also getting a friend, a playmate, a nature guide, a cook and a passionate advocate for them and their families.

“It was almost like those kids became her own family each year,” said her daughter Anita Rackerby. “They were just as important to her as her own kids.”

Karen Camilli died Jan. 14 at her Santa Rosa home surrounded by family after a battle with the rare and deadly cancer ocular melanoma. She was 73.

The mother of four worked most of her 32-year career as a sixth-grade teacher at Lincoln.

She was so committed to her often-underprivileged students that she would come in early to feed them, spearhead fundraisers to buy them art supplies, lead field trips to roller rinks and west county nature camps, and play with them at recess.

She was so active and engaged with her students that she managed to break her arm three years in a row - first at a roller rink, then playing kickball at recess and finally playing baseball with her students.

“She just brought a lot of art and a lot of positive energy to those kids,” Rackerby said. “Everyone who met her, she made an impact on their lives.”

Born in Santa Rosa on Dec. 6, 1941, to Margery and Leonard Onsrud, Karen was 16 when she married Guido Camilli.

“She worked at the Roxy Theater and he was the little Italian who chased her,” Rackerby said.

Somehow she managed to raise four children while taking night classes at Sonoma State University toward her teaching degree and helping Guido, a tile setter, build the family home on Olivet Road, where she lived the rest of her life.

“Honestly I don’t know how she did it,” her daughter said. “She just had this energy. She’d say, ‘Quit complaining about being tired. You don’t know what tired is.’?”

In addition to Rackerby, she is survived by her mother, Margery Onsrud; sister Meta Kozawski; other children Charlotte Whitmore, Donald Camilli and Janette LaBlue; and numerous grandchildren; all of Santa Rosa.

The family is working with her former school to raise funds for art education, including a mural in Camilli’s honor.

In lieu of flowers, checks can be sent to: Lincoln Elementary School in Memory of Karen Camilli, 850 W. Ninth St., Santa Rosa, 95403.

Kevin McCallum