AMHERST, Kann Prak, a most remarkable woman, died Monday night at home surrounded by 4 generations of her family.

Kann was born in Kom Pong Chanang Province, Cambodia in 1938.  She grew up in a farming village surrounded by extended family.  Kann married in Cambodia and had four sons.  Her husband, a General in the Cambodian Royal Army, and her eldest son, Sokhiem Mao, a doctor at Phnom Penh Hospital as well as a medic in the army, predeceased her as victims of the Khmer Rouge regime.   Kann and her youngest son escaped a death march and they fled Cambodia with her other sons.  After a stay in Thai and Indonesian refugee camps, she and two of her sons arrived in the United States in April of 1982.  Luckily, she found her fourth son and his young family living in Amherst.

Kann immediately secured a job and learned English.  In August of 1988, she bought a house in North Amherst with her youngest son and sponsored her four sisters and their families.  Her positive acts in her later years included fund-raising to rebuild Buddhist Temples that were destroyed during the war in Cambodia.

Kann is survived by three sons and their wives: Sokha Mao and Ny Mao, Sokhen Mao and Sreymom Mao, Sokhan Mao and Mom Yim Mao, 9 grandchildren:  Sokhanath, Sokvana (Alex Lee), Sokvanara Mao, Rotana, Rotanak, Leikana, Ratha Mao, Sokaldara, Sovanmolika Mao, and three great grandchildren: Alisha, Justin, Mariah Lee as well as her sister and brother-in-law, Ky Prak and Noy Sin and many nieces and nephews.  She was predeceased by her sisters Kom Prak and earlier this year Kim Prak and Kao Prak.

Services will be at the Santivana Wat (Buddhist) Temple at 144 Buffam Road in Pelham on Saturday at 10:30 AM.  Cremation will take place Sunday in Springfield.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Santivana Wat in Pelham. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.