Lois Elaine McClure

Lois Elaine McClure, 89, of San Clemente, California, passed away peacefully in her sleep on April 10, 2023. Lois was born on November 2, 1933, to Lester and Ella (Nenne) Imm in Streator, Illinois. Her childhood years in Toluca, Illinois, included her mother’s death due to cancer when Lois was 12 and her father’s remarriage when Lois was 15, through which she gained both a stepmother and a fourth sibling. Lois studied business education at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. There, friends introduced her to a local boy, Keith McClure, whom Lois would eventually marry. She was immediately impressed by him both as a gentleman and as a good dancer. In 1958, Keith and Lois married, and on their honeymoon moved to Southern California, where Keith had been offered an architectural job. They went on to have two children, Joan and Jeffrey. Keith and Lois raised their family in San Bernardino and attended Our Savior’s Lutheran Church for over 35 years, where they made many friends, before moving to a retirement community in Banning, CA. Keith passed away in 1999. In 2014, Lois moved to San Clemente, California, to live near her son Jeff and his family.

Lois took great pleasure in caring for her family and her home; she enjoyed travelling (and was often up for an adventure), serving at church, playing games and assembling puzzles with others who loved the same, shopping for clothes with girlfriends or family, baking, and sewing clothing. Throughout her life Lois was known for writing long, newsy letters to friends and family and for generously giving superb hand massages. Lois was a patient, engaged teacher with others, and had a special love for her teaching years, both right after college (teaching college business classes, including secretarial skills, in Chicago) and, after her children grew older and until Keith retired, in a fifth-grade classroom at a Christian elementary school in San Bernardino. Above all, Lois was dedicated to her Lord Jesus. She shared her strong faith with family, neighbors, and friends, and often felt compelled to help people, from working with Rock Point Lutheran Mission in Arizona when her children were young to joining a mission trip to Moldova after she was widowed.

Lois was predeceased by her parents, Lester and Ella; stepmother, Mabel; sister, Beverly and husband, Keith. She is survived by her siblings, Wayne (Dolores) Imm, Bonnie (Dale) Richard, and Carol Moore; her children, Joan (Erik) Olson and Jeff (Julie) McClure; her four grandchildren, Grace (Dan) Claus, Hope Olson, Kincaid McClure and Delaney McClure; and her two great-granddaughters Miriam and Greta Claus.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, June 23, 2023, at 10:00 am at Spirit of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 5050 North Sierra Way, San Bernardino, CA 92404. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Lois’s name can be made to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation online at www.alzinfo.org/donate/.