Sister Clarice

In looking back at the relationships I had with my sisters and brothers I realize that during the days on the farm I never felt particularly close to my older sister Clarice or to my younger brothers Marold and Verner. Much of the time they were not in my sphere of activity as far as farm work and chores were concerned, and Marold and Verner I seldom encountered at school. I felt much closer to Vivian and Vincent, Vivian perhaps because of her engaging personality and Vincent because he and I shared a bedroom for years (both in the little brown house and on the farm).

Clarice I think suffered a good deal more than the rest of us children from the deprivation associated with the Depression and the reduced economic condition of the family. Her first year of college was at Fort Dodge Junior College (by the time she had finished high school my father was commuting the year round to his work at the county treasurer’s office, making attendance at the junior college a possibility). But whereas I look back at my two years at junior college with considerable nostalgia and pleasant memories, she was quite dissatisfied (at least that is my impression).

It was during that time that my aunt Laurine started teaching in Dubuque, Iowa, and this opened up the possibility of Clarice living with her and attending the University of Dubuque (a Presbyterian-funded four-year college). After finishing there she was not able to get a teaching position for which she had trained, again perhaps because the economic condition in the state was still in a depressed state and competition for teaching positions was extreme. Instead she went to library school at the University of Minnesota (she stayed with uncle Laurence and aunt Dagmar who were then living in Minneapolis where my uncle was at the time the minister of a Lutheran church).

On completing this she again had difficulty in finding employment in her field. She finally got a position at the seminary associated with the University of Dubuque. It was there that she met her future husband who was in training for the ministry. Clarice seemed to be happy in her marriage and was a dutiful minister’s wife. After their marriage he was a chaplain in the United States navy for a while and then served in parishes in two rather small congregations. The first was in Dallas Center, Iowa (I believe that was the name of the town, not far from Des Moines) and the second was in Joplin, Missouri.



Clarice and daughter Ann, April 1945

In 1958 we visited them in Joplin — it was the year we drove east in our new Plymouth taking Muriel and Palma with us. The parsonage in Joplin was really quite substandard and I felt sorry for Clarice and her three children. Her husband died of cancer within a year or so.

With the proceeds of her husband’s navy life insurance Clarice moved to Des Moines, bought a house, and got a job as a librarian in the Des Moines school system. The next ten years or so were relatively happy ones for Clarice. She was well liked and admired in her school work.

During most of this Clarice developed severe arthritis (like our aunt Esther had) and had almost reached her retirement point when she was hospitalized, developed a staph infection from a small lesion on her foot and died shortly before she reached her 60th birthday.