Shyamala Gopalan Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography
Quick Info→
Age: 70 Years
Religion: Hinduism
Marital Status: Divorced
Bio/Wiki | |
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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.