Clyde W. Kuester

In about 1908, Charles Edward Kuester and Rosa Lee Parker married and settled down in the small town of Garner, NC. On December 13, 1918, when Clyde was born, his sister, Mary Elizabeth was 8 years old while another sister and a brother had died as infants. Two years later, Grace was born. Tragically, in the following year, Rosa Lee developed pneumonia and died at the age of 42. Charles did not remarry and relied on the help of his eldest daughter to take care of and raise the young ones. Clyde remembers that his father was the first to take him fishing sparking a passion in him for fishing that always stayed with him. His father also instilled in him good manners, a respect for all people, an appreciation for all things God would bring to him and a sense of responsibility to take care of such gifts as given by God. When Clyde was 12 years old, his father died at the age of 62 and the family was split apart: Clyde to his Uncle Clarence Kuester and cousins, Clarence Jr. and Faison, in Charlotte, N.C.; his sister Grace to other relatives. Mary Elizabeth set out on her own being the age of 20. Uncle Clarence was a well established businessman in Charlotte who became the head of the chamber of commerce. Later in life, Clyde wondered about how things might have turned out differently if he had stayed in Charlotte and gone into a business of his own with the help of his uncle’s connections. But, after graduating from Central High School, Clyde hitched a ride with a friend to Washington D.C. in about 1938. Clyde found a room in a boarding house and a job at a bakery and made the most of big city life enjoying dancing and merrymaking.

World War II arrived. Clyde served in the army from 1941 to 1945 in Panama. He became a sergeant and was discharged with honors. Upon his return to D.C., Clyde found work with Sealtest Dairy as a driver delivering dairy products to grocery stores and homes. It was hard physical work carrying and loading heavy crates working his way up to route manager. Through rain and snow the milk was delivered, but Clyde did not relish working those cold icy mornings starting before dawn. However, in 1965, Sealtest awarded Clyde an award for 20 years of safe driving having not had a single accident!

Clyde met the beautiful and vivacious Myrtle Gossage and fell in love. They married on June 2, 1947. The newly-weds bought a one-bedroom apartment in southeast D.C. in the new co-operative housing development, Naylor Gardens, that was built to house the returning veterans. Clyde said it was a wonderful place to live where everyone knew everybody else and they had a sense of community. In 1954, the Kuesters joined the Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Clyde was a devout Christian and attended Sunday bible school regularly.

Clyde and Myrtle had no children and were married for 25 years. Tragically, Myrtle developed mental illness later in life that was diagnosed as schizophrenia. She died in a hospital on December 27, 1972 at the age of 58. Clyde’s sisters rallied to his side. Mary Elizabeth had been traveling much of her life working as a caregiver and had never married. Grace had married Walter Mekalunas and were living on the southwest side of Chicago with their one son and only child, Jim, who had been born in 1948.

After Myrtle’s death, Clyde remained in his apartment in southeast D.C. He had forged strong ties with neighbors and friends and with his church, Capitol Hill Baptist. Clyde continued to make fishing excursions with his buddies. Nags Head, on the outer banks, was his favorite place to go and remained so to his final fishing days. Clyde retired from Sealtest Dairy in 1981 after 36 years of service. Early in the 1980’s, Clyde began dating the lovely Violet Brown who was also a neighbor in the Naylor Gardens community. They fell deeply in love and their relationship lasted for many, many years until Vi’s death in the 1990’s. Clyde became close with Vi’s daughter and grandchildren who remained in touch with him through letters and phone calls.

On his mother’s side, the Parkers, Clyde had cousins in the D.C. area, Swananoa (Swanie) Parker Hill, Helen Parker Jones, and Clarence Parker Jr. After her husband died, Swanie would accompany Clyde on his annual fishing trip to Nags Head or perhaps make a trip to their ancestral Garner, NC. They were both sharp-witted conversationalists and appreciated each other’s company on these various road adventures. After Swanie’s health began to decline in 2003, her caregiver, Ellen Sellers, would sometimes call on Clyde to come stay with Swanie when Ellen took time away. When Swanie became partially paralyzed by a stroke, caregiver Emily Harvey joined Swanie’s caregiving team. Ellen organized trips for the group to Ocean City and elsewhere and dinners for special occasions including all birthdays. But every Valentine’s Day, Clyde would make the drive to Fulton, MD, bearing cards, candies and gifts of jewelry for Swanie, Ellen and Emily to brighten their day and make them feel loved and special. On Christmas, Clyde would buy and wrap up presents for each and every one trying to suit their individual wishes and make sure everyone was happy and accounted for. Clyde created wonderful long lasting memories because everywhere Clyde went, his camera went too! Clyde’s relationship with Swanie blessed him with a blossoming extended family at the age of 85 as he became acquainted with his ‘second-cousins’, Clarence (Lee) Parker III and wife Milli, and Patty (Moon) Maynard who became very close with Clyde.

In mid 2012, Clyde accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and totaled his car in the stairway outside his apartment building but walked away unharmed. By the end of that year, as he was turning 94 years old, he was struggling to get up the stairs to his second-floor walk-up. His knees were just hurting too much. Perhaps the many years carrying heavy crates of milk were catching up. As much as he didn’t want to, Clyde knew he had to move. Lee and Ellen found a two-bedroom ground-floor apartment for rent in Leisure World that seemed perfect since Clyde would also be much closer to them both. The landlord requested a two-year lease that had Clyde hemming and hawing because “I just have about another year in me” and “I don’t buy my bananas too green”. But Clyde relented, signed the lease, started throwing all his things in boxes and, after 64 years in Naylor Gardens, he moved. Clyde settled in slowly opening a box or two a day. He found himself sleeping a lot more and rarely wished to leave his home except for a weekly lunch at the clubhouse when friends came to visit. But Clyde had the energy to resume his other passion: baking bread, rolls, cakes and cookies. In his final month at home, Clyde was trying to perfect his biscuit making. He just could not bake biscuits that rose as high or were as fluffy to compare with those store-bought ones!

In late February, 2014, after spending six weeks in the hospital and at Brooke Grove Rehab, Clyde returned home under hospice care having been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Caregiver Wanda Kimble of Griswold Agency moved in to give Clyde 24/7 care and no one could have been more loving or attentive. Clyde still had hopes of recovering. He would not speak of dying. He had more to live for. However, in the early morning hours of March 5, 2014, Clyde peacefully passed in his sleep.

Clyde will be remembered by his friends and family for his gentlemanly personality, his genuine personable interest and curiosity in others, his love of humor, his sharp and quit wit, his pen in his shirt pocket, his many gadgets that he invented to make his chores easier as he aged, his personable cards containing long personal messages written in his signature scrawl, his many old cottage cheese containers collected over years, his detailed preparations for emergencies including over 20 jugs of water, his manner of saving every plastic bag that happened his way, his aversion to wearing his hearing aids, his gratitude for thoughtfulness and the ensuing thank-you card for a thank-you card, his thrill of hitting the dollar store, his love of board games, his dapper fashion style, and his renouncement of Obama as ‘”the new fascist state!”. But most of all, Clyde will be remembered for all the love he gave to his family and friends.

Thank you, Clyde. We love you and will miss you!

(Written by Ellen Sellers)