Shashi Gauriar Krishna, 78, passed away at 1:31 a.m. on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at home surrounded by family and friends.

She was a high school history and geography teacher at Texarkana, Arkansas High School from 1982 until her retirement in 2013. She taught American History, World History, World Geography and AP European History to thousands of students over her career. She also taught night classes at Texarkana College and Texas A&M University-Texarkana sporadically during her 4-decade career, including after her retirement from Arkansas High.

Shashi was born in Khagaria in the Indian state of Bihar. Her father was B.N. Prasad Gauriar and her mother was Satya Devi Gauriar. Her family later moved to Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telengana. She later met and married Gopal in 1969. Shortly after the wedding, Gopal brought Shashi to the United States to create a new life and family together. After giving birth to her three children, she also taught each of them how to read.

Shashi was a very brave woman. For most of her adult life she went without the large Indian community she grew up with and learned to create a community in the American population of Texarkana through some mixture of professional friendships and former students.

She also traveled extensively. She went to India multiple times with and without her children, including her last visit in 2023 to spread Gopal's ashes in the Ganges River.

She traveled to other notable countries to learn about their cultures. She visited Japan to visit her adopted daughter Ryoko, and on the way to India in 2011, she survived the Fukushima nuclear disaster after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. She refused to change her return itinerary and traveled BACK through Japan again on her way home. She visited London in the United Kingdom and saw first-hand Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and other famous British locations. This was meaningful to her since she was born in 1948, the year after the British Empire abdicated its Indian colony.

She visited China and got to see Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall of China. She directly saw the vastness of what human hands could build without modern machinery thousands of years ago. The final country she visited was South Africa.

She also traveled with her family all over the United States, including visiting both coasts and seeing 4th of July fireworks in Washington, D.C. She also traveled a bit with her grandson, Carter. A special trip for her was taking him to the National Student Leadership Conference at Harvard University during his 8th grade year.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Gopal Krishna and her sister and brother-in-law, Shachi and V.K. Vedsen.

She is survived by her three sons, Samir, Niraj, and Rahul, as well as her grandson Carter and daughter-in-laws Sarah and Scarlett. She also has many surviving siblings, both here and in India: Kumkum Sinha and her late husband, N.K. Sinha, Sushil and Rani Gauriar, Santosh and Nisha Gauriar, Sudhir and Ruby Gauriar, and Rashmi and Vikas Sharan. Her caregivers Audrey, Myla, and Alaina took excellent care of her until the very end.

Funeral services will be held at 12:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at Texarkana Funeral Home on Texas Boulevard.