KIGALI, Rwanda, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Rosamond Carr, whose flower shed became a refuge for Rwandan children orphaned by genocide, has died in her home near Gisenyi in northwest Rwanda.
A niece said Carr, 94, may have died of pneumonia, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
The American expatriate had lived in Rwanda for 40 years when a plane carrying the Rwandan president was shot down over Kigali, setting in motion the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Hutu-dominated government, the Post said. Carr tried to stay, but was convinced she should leave.
When she returned to her Rwandan farm, she converted a shed into an orphanage for 40 children, the Post said. She ran the orphanage for the last 12 years of her life.
When violence broke out in the late 1990s, Carr moved the orphans to her home in Gisenyi. Years later they returned to the farm.
Carr, who died Sept. 29, was buried on her farm near the orphanage. She is survived by a brother and sister. Her former husband died in 1981.
