Claire Ellen Winne

“Claire was a person who filled any room she was in,” said her younger brother, Don Lewis Jr., “with her quick wit and joy.”

Blessed with that ebullient personality, abiding faith, keen intellect, and remarkable resilience in the face of numerous health challenges in the later years of her life, the St. Simon’s Island resident inspired many, across the decades and across the world she travelled with her husband of 64 years, the late Brig. Gen. Clinton H. Winne Jr., USAF (ret.)

A student working at a skilled nursing facility in which Mrs. Winne was treated for several months last year recently wrote about the impact her patient had upon that nurse-in-training and one of her colleagues: “You have changed (our) lives for the better in so many ways— I love you.”

A mid-1970s magazine profile said, “Claire Winne is an extrovert especially if you construe extrovert to mean interested in things outside herself.

“Claire Winne’s laugh comes easily,” the article said, adding the easy laughter was a sign “she sees today for what it is: something to be lived to the hilt and enjoyed through whatever comes.”

Born in New London, CT, in 1934, to Donald C. Lewis Sr. and Ellen (Russell) Lewis, she grew up living over the dairy her parents owned in Bangor, Maine, and attending St. John’s Episcopal Church. At Bangor High School and the University of Maine, where she majored in speech, she excelled in theater productions and might have seemed destined for a career on the stage had she not met Clint Winne, a handsome young Air Force fighter pilot stationed at nearby Dow A.F.B. whom she would soon marry. While they were stationed at Hanscom A.F.B. near Boston, she gave birth to a son, Mark, and, after a stint in Ann Arbor, Michigan, two more sons, Christopher and Scott, were born at Patrick A.F.B., Florida. In the ensuing years, the family would move to assignments in Texas, Alaska, again in Florida, in the Washington D.C. area, Alabama, at two bases in Northern California, in South Dakota, in Germany and again in the Washington D.C. area. In the midst of this, by herself she took care of their three sons, all still in elementary school, for a year while her husband flew fighter jets in the Vietnam War. Typically, he would report for his new assignment and Mrs. Winne would drive the children, packed into a station wagon, to meet him. On one trip, she drove from Maine to California. On another, the family wagon, loaded not only with the three boys but also with a dog, cat, tropical fish in a plastic bag, turtles and a parakeet, broke down on a blistering summer day on a New Jersey highway. But negotiating with a mechanic while juggling the welfare of her kids and menagerie went with the territory. As her husband’s career advanced, her responsibilities grew— seeing to the needs of families in Clint’s commands, keeping a careful eye on protocol while entertaining generals, dignitaries and friends, and more.

She worked hard to provide her sons with a solid Christian foundation. In addition to her involvement with various Officers Wives Clubs, she belonged to civic groups like the Junior League and Quipus Club. She taught at the Hebrew Academy of Bangor and at a church pre-school in Alexandria, VA. She was an accomplished golfer and skier.

She and Gen. Winne moved fulltime to St. Simon’s Island in 1997 and forged close and enduring friendships through Christ Church Frederica, the Newcomers, Shorebirds, Sea Island golf club and elsewhere. They were honorary chairs of the 13th Annual Cabaret benefitting the Coastal Symphony of Georgia, of which they were avid supporters. She considered their years in the Golden Isles their happiest. For many years, they returned to Maine in the summer. They were doting grandparents. And Mrs. Winne lived to lavish love upon her two great-granddaughters, Kate and Audrey Winne.

Mrs. Winne was pre-deceased by Gen. Winne, in 2019, and her daughter-in-law, Kate Winne, in 2020. In addition to her brother, sons and great-granddaughters, she is survived by daughter-in-law Dagmar Winne of South Portland, ME, grandson Jack Winne and wife Darby of Newnan, grandson Matt Winne and wife Hannah of Birmingham, AL, and granddaughters Sandy Winne of Vienna, Austria, Sylvia Winne of Knoxville, TN and Ellen Winne of Chattanooga, TN.

In the last five years of her life, several caregivers became like family members to the Winnes, and the family wishes to express their undying gratitude. The family also wishes to thank Glynn County Fire Rescue.