CLAASSEN, Lucille 1908-2002

CLAASSEN, WINANS, HAMILTON

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 9/10/2010 at 12:28:44

Lucille "Lucy" Claassen, 94, of Wellsburg, Iowa, died Monday, December 16, 2002, at her residence of congestive heart failure.

Lucille was born February 4, 1908, in rural Franklin County, Iowa, the daughter of John C. and Nettie (Winans) Hamilton. She attended country school in rural Franklin County, and graduated from Iowa Falls High School in 1924. Lucille then attended Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls and graduated with an Associate of Arts Degree in 1926. Lucille began teaching at the elementary school in Lehigh, Iowa. In 1928, she moved to Wellsburg from Lehigh, Iowa, to teach school. On April 19, 1930, Lucille was united in marriage to Richard Claassen in Waterloo, Iowa. From 1928 to 1930, Lucille taught third grade in Wellsburg. She left teaching to raise her family. In the early 1950's, Lucille returned to teaching, and she began teaching kindergarten in Wellsburg. She taught kindergarten until retiring in 1964. Her husband Richard died on April 23, 1981.

Lucille was a member of United Reformed Church in Wellsburg, where she had been a member of the Helping Hands Group. Lucille had served for nearly thirty years as the Wellsburg representative for the American Cancer Society. She had been a former long-time board member of the Wellsburg Historical Society. Lucille had a lifelong involvement with farming and conservation activities. She was an avid vegetable and flower gardener, and an enthusiastic bird watcher. She always followed the lives of her many students, those from her early classes beginning in 1928, up through her retirement in 1964. Lucille had a lifelong interest in people and current events. Throughout her life, Lucille's immediate family ad her extended family always remained close to her heart. Lucille never knew a stranger.

She is survived by three daughters Joan Ford Wallick and her husband Robert of Big Horn, Wyoming; Marilyn C. Roberts and her husband Harold of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Barbara L. Claassen of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, four grandchildren Eric and John Roberts, Anne Montgomery, and Sarah Wallick; one great-grandson Carl Roberts, two sister-in-laws Mabel Claassen of Wellsburg, Iowa, and Leah Hamilton of rural Hampton, Iowa. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Richard, one son Richard John Claassen, two sisters Thelma Warman and Myrna Staley, and one brother Lawrence Hamilton.

--funeral card