Obit: Lewis, Clara Louise #2 (1917 - 2016)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Lewis, Burdick, Sternitzky, Ziegler, O’Donnell, Grobe, Horton, Schmitz, Koepke, Schneider, Schoessow

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 7/06/2016

Lewis, Clara Louise (30 November 1917 - 28 June 2016)

Clara L. Lewis, 98, passed away peacefully Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Sunset Gardens Assisted Living in Neillsville.

Clara Louise (Sternitzky) was born Nov. 30, 1917, in the Town of Lynn, near Granton, to the late Louis and Martha (Burdick) Sternitzky. Clara lived her life “one day at a time” and cautioned everyone to “wait until you are 98 and see what you do.”

Clara’s dad was so happy when she was born because he had four brothers but no sisters. Then he had four sons before she was born, including: Melvin, Elmer (stillborn), Clarence and Luverne (who lived only a month). After Clara, three more sons were born (David, George and Thearn). Needless to say, she was the apple of her dad’s eye as she grew up on the family farm near Lynn.

She was baptized, attended grades 7 and 8 at the Christian Day School, and was confirmed and married at Zion Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) in Granton, where she has remained a life-long member. Clara was active in the Ladies Aid and LWML and often played piano as members sang hymns. She was an expert cook and baker, always sharing her talent and food at church events, such as the annual potato pancake dinners, rummage sales, potlucks and wedding and funeral meals.

After attending Poplar Grove Elementary School and Granton High School, Clara married Leslie Lewis June 26, 1934. They lived on a farm a few years when their only child, Ronald, died in 1937, and then the Bangs Disease (Brucellosis of cattle, also known as contagious abortion) infected their herd of cattle. Left with no means of earning a living, in 1943, they moved with their two small daughters to Detroit, MI, to work in the automobile factories, which were booming because of World War II.

Clara began working days as a “Rosie the Riveter”: at the Chrysler Corporation, building tanks for the U. S. Army while Leslie worked at the Packard automobile plant. In addition, Clara worked part time as a cook for Ann’s Galley restaurant.

An 18-foot trailer house was their first home in the Detroit area. A while later they personally constructed a house in Warren, MI. In those days, there were few motels, so Clara and Leslie offered the extra rooms in their home to construction workers and Clara cooked meals for them.

After the war, they returned to their Wisconsin home and resumed dairy farming and cleared several acres of land. They supplemented their income by making and selling maple syrup each spring, growing green beans and pickles for the canneries and picking wild blackberries to sell in Marshfield. Clara canned lots of fruits and vegetables as well as chicken, venison and beef.

She had a “green thumb” and grew lots of beautiful houseplants, annuals and perennials, strawberries, raspberries and miscellaneous garden vegetables. Another way Clara added income to her family was her heavy-duty semi-annual cleaning of the local one-room school, Maple Grove.

The family farm (near Lindsey) had an annual hill-climb on “Burdock Mound” sponsored by the Lauby Riders/Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Club of Marshfield. Clara always cooked and baked lots of good food for friends and relatives who attended the event. Clara was known so well for her good meals that the annual oats threshing crew timed their jobs to be at the Lewis farm for the noon meal, which always included tasty chicken, roast beef and mashed potatoes, lots of vegetables and wonderful breads and apple, peach and berry pies.

Clara was also known for her ability to dress and cut up the deer that Leslie harvested every year. While living on the farm, Clara was active in the neighborhood “Happy Hour Sewing Club.” Over the years, she made several quilts beginning in 1936.

Clara worked for a few years for Weinbrenner’s Shoe Factory in Marshfield. Next, she worked 13 years before retiring in 1980 from Weyerhauser Corporation in Marshfield. There she made many lasting friends. While working at Weyerhauser, she also worked nights as a cook for Bali Hai Supper Club near Neillsville and baked all their dinner rolls and pies, which were sought after by regular diners.

In 1993, Clara and Leslie moved from the farm to a house in Loyal. In 1998, he became a resident at Memorial Medical Center in Neillsville and she drove the 17 miles nearly every day to visit him. Leslie died in 2002, after 67 years of marriage. A year later, Clara moved to Home Town Village in Loyal and then moved to Sunset Gardens in Neillsville in 2012.

While in Loyal, she was extremely active in the Loyal, Granton and Chili Senior Citizen Clubs as well as the Zion Ladies Aid, the Loyal Garden Club, the Home Town Village Canasta Club, Sheepshead and miscellaneous other card groups. She was almost 95 before she stopped shuffling friends to those events. Clara’s 90th birthday was celebrated in 2007 by nearly 400 people at the Loyal Legion Hall.

Clara loved her far-flung family and until recently, frequently visited and corresponded with them and wrote every day in her diary. She especially enjoyed lengthy motor home trips with Lois and Tom, and fishing experiences with Loretta and Edward. (She even won a Master Angler Award from the Michigan Department for Natural Resources for a rock bass that she caught.) In 2014, she was able to travel to Michigan to attend Loretta and Edward’s 50th anniversary celebration, where she visited with her entire immediate family as they reminisced about her wonderful homemade angel food cake, noodles, prune-filled doughnuts, potato pancakes, sea foam candy, fudge and more. She even danced with grandsons at the event.

Clara is survived by her two daughters: Lois (Tom) Ziegler-O’Donnell of California, and Loretta, PhD (Edward) Grobe of Florida and Michigan; and six grandchildren: Shelly (Rev. William) Lewis of Florida, Dean (Kathy) Ziegler of Tennessee, Laurie (Steve) Horton of California, Byron (Julie) Ziegler of Washington, Kevin (Andrea) Grobe of Ohio, and Justin , PhD (Connie PhD) Grobe of Iowa. She is also survived by 11 great-grandchildren: Elijah and Taylor Lewis, Sam and Lila Horton, Mackenzie and Isabel Ziegler and Madeline, Garett, Haley, Oliver and Edison Grobe. Also surviving is one brother, Thearn (Linnie) Sternitzky of Arizona.

Clara’s last great pleasure was meeting and holding 7-month-old Edison’s hand. Clara had become the matriarch of the family, and many relatives, as well as former neighbors and friends continued to correspond and/or visit with her to the end.

The family wishes to thank the caregivers at Sunset Gardens and Hospice for their kind attention to Clara and her needs, to Dr. Amy Schneider for Clara’s medical needs and to Rev. Dan Schoessow for spiritual and pastoral guidance.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, July 8, 2016, at Zion Lutheran Church in Granton. Rev. Dan Schoessow will officiate and burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Dean Ziegler, Bryon Ziegler, Kevin Grobe, Justin Grobe, Garett Grobe, Kevin Schmitz and Ronald Koepke.

Visitation will be held at Cuddie Funeral Home, in Loyal Thursday, July 7, 2016, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and again at the church Friday, from 10 a.m. until the time of service.

Memorial contributions may be made to Zion Lutheran Church in memory of Clara.

Cuddie Funeral Home of Loyal is serving the family.