Clara was born to Nicholas and Rose (Marchand) Peters, and raised on a farmstead in Jewell County Kansas, near Beloit, Kansas, where she grew up. She turned 7 years of age 9 days before her brother, Joseph, was stillborn October 20, 1928. There were six other siblings: Brother Nicholas (Lucy) Peters , and sisters: Florence (Joe) Zimmer, Marie (Arnold) Jeanneret, Loretta (John) Hurley, Rosalee (Francis) Schwerman, and Joan (Don) Goodyon.
Clara’s early years were very different than those of young people today, including walking with her siblings to and from the country school located one mile from the farm, eventually graduating from the 8th grade. The economy for the U.S. was very poor during Clara’s early years with bank failures beginning in the early 1920s, leading up to the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The Crash happened 10 days before Clara’s 8th birthday, and was marked as the beginning of the Great Depression (1929-1938). She lived through the Dust Bowl days of the 1930’s. In 1938, right in the middle of the Dust Bowl days in the MidWest, just as the Great Depression was ending and the U.S. prepared to enter World War II.
On the farmstead where Clara was born and grew up, there was no running water, only a cistern with a windmill. This meant they had an outhouse, rather than a toilet. For baths they had to heat water on the stove, bathing in a bucket of water in the house. They had a wood stove for heat, a kerosene stove for cooking, no telephone, and no electricity. In the summers they would move their beds outside to be cool enough to sleep at night even with the terrible dust storms.
For entertainment Clara and her siblings played the guitar, harmonica, and juice harp, and sang along. They had a rat terrier dog, named Trix, who would “sing” / howl along with the song “You Are My Sunshine”. They were lucky to get a graphaphone which was used to play wax records, and was powered by a hand crank.
Everyone in the family helped with the crops, including shucking the oats and the care of the animals – which, in addition to helping to plant and harvest crops, were also butchered for food. In the early years Clara’s family used horses to pull the machinery for planting and harvesting. Later they were able to use threshing machines for shucking the grain. Sometimes they rode bareback on the horses, occasionally falling off. All dairy products, like butter or sour cream, were made at home from the milk they got from their milk cows. They didn’t have refrigerators. Their milk and produce was stored in root cellars, dried, or canned.
At 17 years of age and in the middle of the dust bowl years, and disliking farming from a young age, Clara saved her money until she felt she had enough to leave the only life that she had ever known and move, to Kansas City, KS, over 200 miles from her farm and everyone she knew. When Clara arrived in Kansas City she first earned a living sewing clothing in a large garment factory. As the U.S. became involved in WWII, with a sudden need for war machines, Clara went to work in a fighter airplane factory where she learned to rivet metal skins onto airplane wings alongside a mainly female workforce. During her three years working in the airplane factory, Clara became a proficient welder.
Clara met and married her first husband in Kansas City. Clara’s son, Ross McGhee, was born in 1946. Clara was an accomplished seamstress, and actually sewed her sister Rosalee’s wedding dress in 1951, also worn by one of Rosalee’s daughters when she married decades later.
Clara married Gordon Fred Maas in 1956, in Kansas City, Missouri. Their first daughter, Karen, was born in Kansas City, MO. Over the years; the family moved to Banning, CA (where their second daughter Kaye was born); Portland, Oregon; Corvallis, Oregon; and in 1972 to Beaverton, Oregon. Clara was an expert seamstress, saving the family a lot of money by making the majority of Karen and Kaye’s clothing as they grew up.
Clara spent the beginning of each day in prayer and reading her Bible and other devotionals. The family attended church together every Sunday, with St. Matthew Lutheran Church, in Beaverton, Oregon, being Clara’s church home since the early 1970s. She was a member of the Altar Guild for many years, helping wherever needed. Clara was also a big part of the the original St. Matthew tape ministry as they began recording sermons: making recordings, running off copies of tapes, making labels, etc.
As an active member of the WELCA, Clara used her sewing skills to make many albs in various sizes for accolytes, eventually making banners for St. Matthew and vestments for the pastors. She also helped out with many funerals, making sure the funeral palls were properly used and cared for.
Clara designed and made a large baptismal banner for St. Matthew in 1974, after which women of the church began making small baptismal banners that were then given to each person who was baptized. Clara spent many evening hours making baptismal banners at home.
Making blankets for Lutheran World Relief (LWR) was a passion for Clara! After decades of taking charge of the blanket projects: overseeing the procurement of fabric and sewing supplies, preparing blanket kits, organizing bi-monthly blanket-tying and sewing groups, packing blankets for shipping to LWR, as well as many hours of sewing blanket tops herself, Clara was honored for having been responsible for the production and completion of over 7,000 blankets which were shipped all over the world by LWR to people in need.
Clara was an avid gardener, to which anyone who saw her yard would attest! She continued to putter in her yard right up until the time when, at the age of 97 years of age, her health prevented her from being able to live on her own any longer and necessitating her to move to an assisted living apartment.
During the final two years of her life, Clara had various health issues that took their toll, culminating with her passing away quietly and peacefully on September 27, 2021, after nearly 2 weeks at St. Vincent Hospital.
Clara is survived by Sister-in-Law Lucy Peters; Sister Joan Goodyon and Joan’s husband Don; Clara’s son Ross (Sharon Chavis) McGhee; daughters: Karen (Chuck) O’Donnell; and Kaye (Jack Sipperly) Maas; as well as 4 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in honor of Clara to the St. Matthew Lutheran Church Lutheran World Relief blanket program.
A memorial service is planned for November 12, 2021, at 1:00 PM, at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, OR, after which there will be a reception with Clara’s daughters Karen and Kaye. Clara’s remains will be placed in with those of her husband, Gordon, at Willamette National Cemetery by Pegg, Paxson, & Springer Funeral Chapel at a later date.
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