Clara Denise Came

Clara Denise Came was born on September 16th 1923. She and her sister Mickey were raised primarily by their grandmother who was part Native American Indian. Clara was raised to value higher education and being thrifty. Clara had polio when she was only 5 years old and she almost died. Her future was shaped by that experience and she always said that the year she spent in bed unable to speak made her determined to be strong and self reliant. She entered nursing school as soon as she graduated from high school, eventually earning a Bachelor’s of Science Degree as well as her Registered Nursing license.

She met a U.S. Marine, Harry Came, while on a date with another boy when she was 16. They fell in love at that meeting even though they were on dates with other people. Harry pursued her and they kept in contact until Harry went oversees on active duty during World War II. Clara finished nursing school and when Harry came back from active duty they were married.

They eventually moved to Chicago where they started their family and Harry started his career in the fire alarm industry. They eventually had 7 children of which 6 survived. Clara worked part time as a nurse while raising their family. They moved the family to California in 1955 and started Cames Security Alarms.

Clara loved working and staying busy no matter what was going on in her life. She was able to juggle her large active family as well as her nursing career. For years she worked the graveyard shift at local hospitals so she could be home during the day for her family, getting very few hours of sleep each day. She went back to school to earn her master’s degree and in fact maintained a 4.0 grade point average while on a scholar ship at Cal State Los Angeles. She was a nursing administrator at Cedar’s Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and at French Hospital in San Francisco until she retired in the mid 1970s. Clara eventually came to work with Harry and her children at Cames Security Alarms shortly after her retirement. She remained working and finally running the company until her death. There was no such thing as a sick day in her vocabulary.

Clara had a very warm place in her heart for all animals. Over the years she brought many dogs, ducks, geese, goats, exotic birds, sheep, chickens and even donkeys home. Her dogs were always very special to her and she treated them like royalty. She was also an avid sports enthusiast and if you happened to visit her during a baseball, basket ball or football game you had no choice but to watch it with her. Clara kept up on current events and news. She never missed reading the news paper or watching the nightly news.

Clara will be remembered as a most tenacious strong willed, capable, beautiful, intelligent and warm hearted woman. She loved her six children, 11 grandchildren and 7 ½ great grandchildren. She was proud of her many accomplishments and the fact that even at 88 years old she never colored her hair and still had not gone completely gray.

She was a very strong and brave woman and left this earth with dignity in the arms of her children.