Gayle Cleone Klipping

1929-2023

Gayle Cleone Klipping passed peacefully at the age of 93 on March 12, 2023, in Boulder, CO with family at her side. She was born to parents Carl and Mabel Swanson, and raised on a farm outside Davenport, Iowa, near the small town of Buffalo, with her siblings Kathryn, Howard, Edward, Myron, Mim (Mable), and Joan.

Gayle always had a strong voice, and a strength of will, unmatched by most. After high school, she attended Iowa State Teachers College and sparked a life-long passion for teaching. Though her time teaching in Iowa was brief, interrupted by an expansive and beautiful romance that turned into a lifetime of love, the students from her one-room rural schoolhouses remembered her with fervor as a brilliant and compassionate teacher, and have honored her since at reunions.

In the summer of 1951, Gayle and a friend decided to hit the road on their own and drive to Colorado for a vacation; two women with nothing but miles of road and the occasional pay phone made it from Iowa to Manitou Springs, where she fell in love with the mountains and nature all around her. Gayle had such a spirit of adventure, when they arrived in town, she worked out a deal to clean rooms in exchange for a room of her own in a hotel. Sitting down to lunch in a cafe, Gayle asked the server what it took to get a job in this seemingly too busy establishment, and the server told her she just had to show up. So she began working as a server in the cafe, and even in her last days she talked about how much she loved that job. The people she worked with always had her back, and you could even say stuff to them you wouldn’t normally say out loud to people. Little did she know, there was a lot more to fall in love with in Manitou Springs.

After a while working at the restaurant, her coworkers started teasing her a bit about the looks she would get from the bread delivery man. It was only a matter of time before he asked her out, and they fell madly in love. Just a few months later, Gayle Swanson and Bob Klipping realized they were meant to be, and they decided to marry. Their pastor thought the marriage came on too quickly, two young kids who thought they understood such a complex endeavor, and he denied their appeal to him for marriage. Rather than wait, they talked with Bob’s neighbor, a Rabbi who survived the Holocaust, a man who could recognize the depth and truth behind their intentions. He gladly married them, and the time they all spent together, the stories of such intense tragedy leading to such glorious adoration of life and love, all this time and all these stories impacted Gayle and Bob the rest of their lives. They both shared the Rabbi’s stories with friends and family, and truly loved him for his ability to see them in a way others wouldn’t allow.

It was this deep spiritual connection to nature and to humanity that formed the seed of Gayle and Bob’s life together. This one moment of compassion and hope for a young couple, and the profound love of humanity that brought them together, in this exquisite landscape in Colorado, that allowed their love for each other to grow into the love for family, raising three daughters while traveling all over the Rocky Mountains. They went on unbelievable trips together, forging memories for their daughters that last to this day, particularly one adventure across a treacherous bridge to ancient cliff dwellings with a special permission from the BLM, an adventure few have experienced. They lived in cities, in remote areas, on reservations, and eventually settled in Denver, all the while teaching their children to observe and love the earth and the sky. The girls would spend all summer running around barefoot in the grass, coming home for lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup with a chapter from Little Women. Gayle allowed her children to learn from nature all around them and come together for nourishment of the body and mind.

But more than a teacher in school, Gayle was a teacher in life. Gayle experienced daunting and unimaginable challenges in life, and yet in every instance where others may have fallen defeated, Gayle mustered the courage to declare “how lucky am I,” always followed with a statement extolling the incredible fortune of being alive. She was an avid reader, and very generous with sharing books and knowledge, often with surprising subject matter, constantly expanding her own perspective on life and offering that expansion to those around her. Having lived through deep lows and heavenly highs, having shared thoughts and conversation and life with such a diverse variety of people, Gayle had an unmatched ability to understand truly human moments. Even into her final days, if you asked Gayle something real, a question of substance about the human experience, she was able to tap into a seemingly infinite well of knowledge and bring out the perfect thing, stated in a way that the heart can understand just as easily as the mind. Even more so, Gayle had an unmatched dry wit and could turn any gathering into a party with a turn of phrase. She continued making jokes into her final days.

From the time she was a child, Gayle was curious and observant, funny and playful, and acted fearlessly even in times when she felt afraid. She taught us all how brilliantly one can shine when they use their own voice, and how deeply beautiful one can be when they listen to the voices of others. Everywhere she went, people fell in love with her, and how lucky are we that we got to be her family? What a brilliant star in the sky, embodied in a person who we got to spend so much time with and get to know so well. And how brilliant it is to be seen and known by her.

Gayle is survived by and will be sorely missed by her 3 daughters, Barbara (Mike) Schwartz of Guilford, CT; Sharon Klipping of Boulder, CO,; Joan Klipping of Naples, FL. Her dear brother Myron Swanson of Davenport, IA, her 4 beloved Grandchildren, Jeremy Schwartz (Christie) of Colorado Springs; Matt Bodenchuk (Leslie) of Boulder, CO; Chris Schwartz (Caila) of Guilford CT; Juliette Bodenchuk of Boulder, CO, her 7 cherished Great Grand Children, Tucker and Althea of Colorado Springs; Greyson, Brooks and Beya of Boulder; Olivia and Kinsley of Guilford, CT. She is also survived by boatloads of nieces and nephews, each of whom held a different twinkle in her eye, and countless others she touched along the way be they students, friends, and loving caregivers near the end of her life.

A funeral service for Gayle will be held Saturday, April 22, 2023, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Memorial Gardens Cemetery & Funeral Home, 3825 Airport Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80910.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.memorialgardensfuneralhome.com for the Klipping family.

If you would like to make a donation in Gayle’s name, choose a local public school to help teachers gain access to school supplies or children to gain access to healthy meals. Another great way to honor her would be to strike up a conversation with a stranger and listen to the stories they have to share.