Kari Ann Hensley's Obituary
Kari Ann Hensley, age 55, of Dover, Delaware departed this earth to be present with the Lord on January 13, 2026, surrounded by her ten children, husband, and mother. Born May 20, 1970 to Ray and Sya Parriott, Kari was the oldest of three children. She was born in Bellflower, California, but grew up in Buena Park, California. Kari was raised in a Christian home and trusted in Christ for her salvation at an early age. She was a member at Rosewood Christian Reformed Church in Bellflower and attended Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California, where she had an accomplished academic and basketball career, graduating in 1987.
Kari played one year with the USA Junior National Team, traveling to Brazil and Spain. Kari chose to attend Oregon State University on a full athletic scholarship, where she earned Co-Freshman of the year honors in the Pac-10. She left Oregon State after her freshmen year and moved closer to home, receiving a scholarship to Cal State University at Long Beach, where she had a successful basketball career and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and earned her Early Childhood teaching certificate.
While at Cal State University at Long Beach, Kari met and eventually married Rick Hensley. Her testimony for Christ was instrumental in Rick's conversion, a requirement she held quietly before agreeing to date him. Married in 1992, Kari and Rick lived in California until three months after their first child was born, in 1996. They moved from the West Coast to the East Coast in Delaware, where they lived for two years, and where she gave birth to their second daughter. Kari and Rick returned to California, following a call for Rick to pursue a Seminary degree to be equipped for pastoral ministry. After Rick graduated from Talbot School of Theology, they returned to Delaware with their four daughters in January, 2001. They remained in Delaware the next twenty-five years, as Kari fulfilled her calling of being a godly wife and mother, faithfully serving in the home and raising ten wonderful children currently ranging from age twenty-nine down to twelve and supporting Rick as he has served in pastoral ministry. Kari also educated her children in the home, devoting herself to raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This Scripture captures the essence of Kari's life as a wife and mother, "She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her" (Prov. 31:27-28).
Kari has left a legacy in ministry to her family and the local church. She is survived by her husband, Rick Hensley; her ten children, Savanna (29) and Josh Kilburn, Cailin (27) and Shawn McCullough, Brenna (26) and Danny Oswald, Riley (25) and Jared Zacharias, Josiah (23), Madelyn (21), Audrey (19), Elijah (17), Paul (16) and Hannah (12) Hensley; her four grandchildren, Callum (2) and Sya McCullough (1), Lincoln Oswald (4 mo) and "Lil' Bean" Kilburn (due late February); her mother, Sya Parriott; and her siblings, Jodi Logan and Brent Parriott. She is preceded in death by her father, Ray Parriott.
A Memorial Service will be held at Berean Community Church Milford Harrington Hwy Milford, DE; on Saturday, January 17, at 11:30 AM. The family will receive friends at the Church from 10:30AM until the time of the service.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to "Nick's House" (https://www.headstrong.org/give), which housed Kari and Rick for 25 days at no cost during her treatments at UPenn.
Arrangements are entrusted to the Framptom Funeral Home-Fleischauer Chapel of Greenwood, DE. 19950
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