Lola Irene Clevenger Wiese

1920 - 2011

Lola Irene Clevenger Wiese, who taught three generations of elementary school children in nearly 30 years of service with the Huntsville Independent School District, died Jan. 17 at her Huntsville home.

Mrs. Wiese, who was 90, had suffered a Dec. 27 stroke.

She was born April 18, 1920 in the Spears Chapel community of Newton County, Tex., less than five miles from the Louisiana border, and grew up in the nearby town of Burkeville. Her parents were Arthur M. Clevenger, who worked in timber harvesting, and Esta Miller Clevenger, a homemaker. She was the youngest of four children, although her two older sisters died in the great influenza epidemic that swept the United States in 1918.

In 1937 she moved to Huntsville to attend what then was Sam Houston State Teachers College, where she worked her way through school, despite the Depression, as a live-in nanny for other people’s children. She ultimately earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in college. It was in Huntsville that she also met Arthur “Tex” Wiese, Sr., the manager of a local men’s clothing store. They were married on Christmas Eve of 1941, shortly after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and shortly before her husband entered the U.S. Army.

Beginning in 1937, Mrs. Wiese lived in Huntsville for 70 of the next 74 years, except for only three just before and during World War II and one in the early 1950s, when the family briefly moved to Marlin, Tex.

Her teaching career began with schools in Big Sandy, Tex., before her marriage and then in Burkeville shortly after her husband entered the military. She returned to it in 1954, after her two sons were born, when she began working as a substitute teacher in Huntsville. In 1956 she became a full-time fifth grade teacher and later moved to the fourth grade. During her time as a Huntsville teacher, which lasted until her retirement in 1982, she worked in four different elementary schools.

Mrs. Wiese was active in various education organizations, including the Texas State Teachers Association, and several retired teachers’ groups. She was a longtime member of the First United Methodist Church of Huntsville,

She was preceeded in death by her husband, who passed away in 1994.

Survivors include her two sons and daughters-in-law, Arthur and Nanette Wiese of Mount Vernon, Va., and Larry and Patricia Wiese of Chappell Hill, Tex; a granddaughter, Kimberly Dahmani of Alexandria, Va.; a grandson, Hugh Clevenger Wiese, and his wife Rachel of Austin; and a niece, Nancy Michel of Houston.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the First United

Methodist Church of Huntsville. Visitation will be on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Huntsville Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the First United Methodist Church of Huntsville.