Dr. Shama Singh

Northview-North Mankato Mortuary
2060 Commerce Drive
North Mankato, MN 56003
507-388-2288

Shama Singh, age 84, of North Mankato passed away on Friday, May 25, 2018 at Laurels Peak Rehabilitation Center, Mankato.  Memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., on Saturday, June 2, 2018 at Elevate Church, 191 N Victory Drive, Mankato with a visitation one hour prior to the service at the church. Burial will take place at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Mankato. Northview – North Mankato Mortuary is assisting the family with arrangements.

Shama Indira Sant Singh was born on March 22nd, 1934 to Ernest Mohinder Sant Singh and Daisy Azizunissa (neé Sadiq) in the village of Asrapur, on the Indo-Pakistan border. The village was destroyed during the violent 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. She came from a long line of Urdu poets, scholars, artists, writers, and physicians, her learned roots having been traced through numerous archival documents to the Mughal era on the Indian subcontinent. Unsurprisingly, Shama was talented from the start, being an outstanding painter, a gift she exercised until the end of her life. Paintings done by her as a schoolgirl were exhibited at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1948.

Moving with her family from the war-torn border to the safety of the picturesque British Cantonment of Poona in 1940, she attended St. Mary’s School, Poona. This was followed by education at Fergusson College, Poona, and pre-medical studies at Women’s Christian College, Madras. She entered medical school at Christian Medical College, Vellore, in 1955. While at Vellore, she was a favorite of Dr. Ida Scudder, legendary American missionary and founder of Christian Medical College, Vellore. Inspired by Dr. Ida Scudder, an obstetrician, Shama completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Sir David Sassoon Hospital in Poona in 1963, following which she practiced Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Community Medicine. She attended the Haggai Institute for Christian Leadership in Singapore in 1988, an experience which greatly influenced her practice of Medicine, imbuing it with a Christ-centered approach. She had a deep Christian faith which led and sustained her. She had a gift for friendship, and had friends and loved ones the world over.

She spent her final years in Mankato, where she was a member of Elevate Church. She is survived by her three sons, Dr. Preman Singh of Mankato, Pranav Singh (Leigh Singh) of Roanoke, Virginia, and Dr. Promeet Singh, of Mankato. She is also survived by her sister Usheam Elizabeth Dawson (Samuel Dawson) of Pune, India, and her brother, Ranjit Samuel Sant Singh (Violet Priyadarshini Sant Singh) of Santa Ynez, California.

“Yet will I rejoice in the Lord”.