Kelly Joanne (Burrows) Kempa was born March 3, 1962, in Joplin, Missouri. Daughter of Vernon Burrows and Katherine Wallace, Kelly is survived by her sister Teresa Burrows Lewis, half-sister Ranae Burrows, and half-brother Steven Crum. Kelly is predeceased by her parents and half-brother Jason Burrows. Her mother passed away when she was seven years old. Shortly after she and her sister were given to her Uncle Robert Burrows & Aunt Rosa by their father to be raised with their two children. Kelly loved growing up and running around with her cousins and friends on the farm, the woods/creek, and the surrounding area. Kelly loved animals of all kinds and dreamt of being a veterinarian but never had the opportunity to achieve her dream. She married early at age 16 that lasted several years. She worked several odd jobs for a few years before joining the Navy as an Air Traffic Controller serving at two West Coast Navy stations in California and Washington from December 1985 to December 1990 earning several safety awards during her service. After the Navy, she married again and moved to Louisiana where she worked as a veterinarian tech and attended college again. She later divorced and moved to Joplin, Missouri then later to Springfield, Missouri landing a job as a hotel clerk and part-time vet tech while re-attending college. She was later hired on with Union Pacific Railroad in January 1999 as a Train Dispatcher managing train traffic and earning several awards. She met her future husband in 2002, Peter Hiracheta at work and later moved to Logan, Iowa. There she worked as a cashier at a truck stop before attending truck driving school for Swift trucking company in 2002. She later drove for Consolidated Freight Company with a cousin for a short time. Kelly drove to all parts of the country and loved her job and the scenery, Kelly, wanting to be closer to home every night, quit her over the road job in 2004 and found work with a local grain trucking business in Missouri Valley, Iowa. On October 31, 2005, Kelly married Peter Hiracheta in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2007 they moved to Kansas and together they built a home on a small acreage northwest of Tonganoxie, Kansas. They raised chickens, ducks, guineas, planted fruit trees, and did gardening. Kelly has a special love for cats and dogs. She took in and raised over 60 cats and dogs (strays & shelter animals) over the years and treated them as her kids. In 2008 she drove a Big Rig for AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Service) out of Topeka, Kansas for about a year and a half. In 2009 She started work at Cabela’s Sporting Goods for about a year and soon started showing signs of forgetfulness and having severe migraines. Kelly developed Dementia symptoms in 2010 at age 48 and four years later diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Disease by Kansas University Hospital. June 2023 Kelly entered Nursing homes for the first time June 2024 She passed away at the Hospital. Kelly had no children of her own but does have four stepchildren and 16 step-grandchildren with her husband. Kelly had a kind heart and helped anyone that needed help.

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Kelly Kempa Hiracheta Obituary | Cremation Center of Kansas City