Clara Lavonne Garcia

Clara Garcia was born 1934 in La Grande Oregon. Her Family immigrated to Yakima Washington where she and her sister were raised by a single Mother. This is where she met her two lifelong friends (sisters) Phyllis Brucker and Veda Polite. After attending Yakima High, she would later attend Central Washington University with Veda. She majored in her lifelong ambition to be a teacher. She worked her way through school at the local dime store where she felt lucky to meet Audie Murphy while filming to Hell and Back.

After College Clara taught English at Moses Lake and then would transfer to Fort Richardson in Anchorage Alaska where she would meet the love of her life Augustin Garcia. Another thrill she had was meeting President Kennedy in Anchorage. They were married and soon departed for the Rose City where she raised two boys Greg and Jeff. She would go on to teaching English at Alice Ott Middle School. In 1978 she retired early to focus on her husband's window cleaning business ADR. It would go on to become one of the biggest window contractors in the state of Oregon. ADR would clean windows at the Memorial Coliseum, the Bank Tower, and the Capital in Salem.

In 1978 she would lose her husband from a terrible window cleaning accident but fought through to raise two young boys who would go onto graduate school in Pharmacology and Radiologic Technology. She died in her youngest boys arms Dec 24, 2020 the exact day she was married and the day of her best friends’ birthday. It was the honor of my life just to be her son. Love Jeff!