Shyamala Gopalan Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Quick Info→

Age: 70 Years

Marital Status: Divorced

Religion: Hinduism

Bio/Wiki
Full Name	Shyamala Gopalan Harris
Other Name(s)	• Gopalan Shyamala • Shyamala Harris
Profession	• Biomedical Scientist • Associate Professor
Famous for	Being the mother of Kamala Harris, 49th Vice President of United States
Physical Stats
Height (approx.)	5' 1" (155 cm)
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Dark Brown
Personal Life
Date of Birth	7 December 1938 (Wednesday)
Birthplace	Madras, Madras Province, British India (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
Date of Death	11 February 2009
Place of Death	Oakland, California, U.S.
Age (at the time of death)	70 Years
Death Cause	Colon cancer
Zodiac sign	Sagittarius
Signature
Nationality	• British Indian (1938-1947) • Indian (1947-2009) • American
School	Delhi Tamil Education Association Senior Secondary Schools, Delhi
College/University	• Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, India (1955-1958) • University of California, Berkeley (1958-1960) • University of California, Berkeley (1960-1963)
Educational Qualification	• Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Home Science from the Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, India • Master of Science (M.S.) in nutrition and endocrinology from the University of California, Berkeley • PhD. in in nutrition and endocrinology from the University of California, Berkeley
Religion	Hinduism
Caste	Brahmin
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Divorced
Affairs/Boyfriends	Donald J. Harris (Economist, Professor, Writer)
Marriage Date	5 July 1963
Place of Marriage	Oakland, California
Family
Husband/Spouse	Donald J. Harris (m.1963-div.1971; Economist, Professor, Writer)
Children	Daughter(s)- 2 • Kamala Harris • Maya Harris
Parents	Father- Painganadu Venkataraman Gopalan (1911 - February 1998) (Freedom Fighter, Retired Civil Servant) Mother- Rajam Gopalan (Deceased) Social Worker)
Siblings	Brother-1 • Gopalan Balachandran Sister(s)-2 • Sarala (Obstetrician) • Mahalakshmi (Information Scientist)
Other Relatives	Granddaughter- Meenakshi Ashley Harris (Lawyer, Author, Activist, Theater Producer) Grandniece- Sharada Balachandran Orihuela (Author)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shyamala Gopalan

She learned classical Carnatic music from her mother during her childhood.

She won a gold medal in a national singing competition. She often sang on the radio and earned money.

She moved to America when she was 19 years old after getting selected for her post-graduation at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her parents paid for her first year in America through their retirement funds.

Due to the lack of a phone line in her home, Shyamala Gopalan would often communicate with her parents through an aerogramme.

In 1962, she met Donald J. Harris and found his talk at the Afro-American Association at the University of California, Berkeley interesting.

Soon they formed a friendship and got married in 1963, breaking the custom of introducing the spouse to the parents before marriage.

No one from her family was able to attend the marriage due to lack of funds for travelling.

She worked as a postdoctoral research physiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, from October 1963 to October 1966.

She worked as a visiting scientist in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois from October 1965 to September 1967.

She was a civil rights activist and would often actively participate in the protests with her husband, Donald J. Harris.
Shyamala Gopalan at a civil rights protest in Berkeley, California

She was a special research fellow at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin from October 1968 to September 1969.

She had worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a biomedical scientist, focussing her research on hormone receptors in breast cancer development.
Shyamala Gopalan in her lab at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

She worked as an Assistant Research Biochemist in the Department of Zoology and Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley from September 1969 to June 1974.

In 1971, she filed for divorce. After the divorce, she raised her daughters, Kamala and Maya Harris single-handedly and would often take them to her parents in Chennai, India.
Shyamala Gopalan with her daughters

In February 1983, she became an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine of McGill University in Montreal.

She had a membership in various professional societies, including, the American Association for Cancer Research American, the Society of Biological Chemists, and the International Association for Breast Cancer Research.

Her daughter, Kamala Harris has claimed that her mother had two aims in her life, to take care of her daughters and cure breast cancer.

Her work concerning the treatment of breast cancer helped advance the studies related to the issue.

The Breast Cancer Action, an activist organisation, thanked her after her death as she had asked for donations to be made for the organisation.

In 2020, Wanda Kagan, a high school friend of Kamala Harris recalled how Shyamala Gopalan helped her after she had told Kamala about her abusive stepfather.

After the death of Shyamala Gopalan in 2009, her ashes were spread in the waters of the Indian Ocean in Chennai by Kamala Harris.