Clare M. Olsen died peacefully in her Barnegat home with one of her sons, Richard, at her side on Friday, February 16. She was 102 years old, and lived a long and very healthy life. Until a few months ago she was walking, and last summer she was still able to climb up stairs to the second floor of her daughter’s home. At the age of 88 she got her first passport and traveled to England with a daughter and son-in-law to visit one of her grandsons. Two years later she traveled to Paris to visit another grandchild. Seeing London and Paris and the Normandy beaches were hopes she had long nurtured.
Clare was born in North Bergen, NJ on May 15, 1916 to Clara Marie Blessing Wells and William Wells. She spent her first five years in New Jersey, but then moved to Buffalo, New York and later to Florida, where she had a harrowing experience during the 1926 hurricane, which she recalled for the rest of her life. Clare graduated from Union High School in 1934, and then worked in various clerical jobs in New York City. She married George W. Olsen in 1942 and was married for nearly 61 years, until he died in January of 2003. The two of them had five children together, George Olsen, living in Freehold, NJ, Sandra Olsen in Middletown, CT, Richard Olsen in Barnegat NJ, and Karen Olsen in Lansdale, PA. They lost a two-year-old son, Robert, to leukemia in 1948. Clare and George lived in the Buffalo region for 21 years, and then retired to Barnegat, New Jersey in 1978. Clare retired from the Hens & Kelly department store in Hamburg, New York in 1978.
Clare will be remembered as a strong, determined and humble woman, who lived her life with grace and quiet dignity. She had a strong moral compass, grounded in her faith as a Christian. She has been a Presbyterian for the past 65 years and a member of Wright Memorial Presbyterian Church for the past 40 years, but she has always attributed her long and healthy life to her Christian Science upbringing, which instilled in her a deep and firm faith in the goodness, love and mercy of God, which she believed was for all people.
Clare loved to read historical novels and greatly enjoyed music, including opera and symphonies. Until two years ago, she would attend concerts with her family at the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a young woman, she loved going to the Metropolitan Opera House, where she would wear a long black dress and buy a standing room ticket for 50 cents, which was all she could afford at the time. It gave her great pleasure to see her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren learn to play musical instruments. She believed in the power of music to uplift the human spirit and create avenues of mutual understanding. She always marveled how people of different backgrounds could come together to enjoy and be stirred by the beauty of music.
Her family knows there is no one who can take her place. She is survived by her four children, nine grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren. Her life and legacy will be celebrated at Wright Memorial Presbyterian Church on Saturday, March 30 at 1:00 PM, followed by a reception in the church hall. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to St. Jude Research Hospital at 501 St Jude Place Memphis, TN 38105, or online at Stjude.org .
To leave online condolences for the family, please visit www.shinnfuneralhome.com
The Thos L. Shinn Funeral Home, 10 Hilliard Dr., Manahawkin, NJ was entrusted with the arrangements.
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