Clarice Fay (Larson) Yarger

Clarice Fay Larson Yarger, the 5th of 6 children, was born on the farm in Belmond IA to Joseph L. and Ruth Richardson Larson on July 9, 1925. Grades K-8 Clarice attended the old country school where she skipped 2nd grade. She attended Belmond High School for two years but the family moved to another farm in Kanawha IA for her last 2 years in high school. It was as a trombone playing member of the Kanawha High School marching band that she met Dean Austin Yarger, the drum major of the Clarion High School marching band. Clarice graduated from high school in 1942 at age 17. It was War time. Dean left to join the Navy to fight in WWII. While he was gone, Clarice with two girlfriends, De Loris Yeakel McQuiston and Lou Blackman, moved to Madison WI to work at the Badger Ordinance Works contributing to the war effort making ammunition.

In 1943 Clarice and Dean were married while he was on leave. Shortly after while Dean was on a Navy destroyer in the Pacific, she gave birth to the Dee, the first of their 5 children in Clarion IA. In 1942 after the War, they settled in Fryeburg ME. Son Dana was born in 1947. Clarice’s parents Joe and Ruth Larson drove a pickup to ME to help the family move back to IA. Clarice, Ruth and baby Dana rode the train from ME while Dean, Joe and Dee drove the truck with their belongings back to Clarion. It was the second of many moves to come. Between 1947 and 1961 the family of 4 moved many times including many residences in Clarion IA, Atlantic IA, Racine WI and Superior WI where Dee graduated from high school and Dale, LauriJo and Timothy were born. In 1961 the family moved to Madison WI where Dana graduated from high school. In 1965 the family now reduced to 5 moved to Asheville NC. There was one more move. In 1969 the family finally settled in Scotts MI.

While the children were young, Clarice was a doted mother, Girl Scout leader, Cub Scout Pack leader, and home room mother. She did everything a stay at home mom would do: cook, clean, sew, mend, garden. During these years Clarice loved to get together with her girlfriends for a lively game of bridge.

She had always wanted to go to college, but instead she decided to get a job outside the home. In 1970 Clarice started working for Gantos Women’s clothing store. Her work with Scouts and scheduling her time for all the high school events Dale, LauriJo and Tim were in, developed her organization skills, but now she had an ever growing reinforcement of those skills plus developing many skills in the retail business, and an expanding presence of style. She worked as manager of Gantos in Kalamazoo for 12 years.

Then Dean passed away in 1980. Change was in the air. Her children had dispersed. LauriJo with young granddaughters Kristin and Erika lived in Kalamazoo. Dee lived in Madison WI with her partner Paul Lundell. Tim had graduated from Michigan and was on his way west. Dale was out of the Navy and living in Washington and Dana and his wife had recently moved to San Francisco to open an art gallery in 1980. In 1982 Dana was opening another art gallery in San Diego and he bragged that the weather was great. Clarice was definitely disliking winters and wanted to move from the lake house in Scotts. Dana convinced her that she was needed for her organization and management skills at his new gallery in San Diego. That was all it took. Clarice, at age 57, wanting a new adventure, decided to head west and settled in San Diego CA in 1982. She joined Dana’s staff and became Director at Pollock Gallery in Seaport Village. This was a whole new world, meeting and working with such well-known artists as LeRoy Neiman, Alvar and Erté and representing the work of Dalí, Picasso, Miró and Chagall. Her art world interests took her to major cities including New York and even Moscow where Clarice was one of 25 American art dealers invited by Armand Hammer to attend the first auction of contemporary Russian art open to Americans.

When the gallery was sold to WYLAND in 1995, Clarice retired from the retail business, but not for long. Being bored, she started working at JC Penny’s bridal registry in Mission Valley Mall in San Diego. After a few years, she “retired” again. Clarice was still in Scotts when her first two grandchildren, Kristin and Erika were born. After her move to CA Clarice was there for the births of all her grandsons Blake, Scott, Brad and Jack and granddaughter Abby. Now she needed more free time to babysit with her grandsons, Blake, Scott and Brad Yarger in Tiburon CA, and grandchildren Abby and Jack Yarger in LA. She made sure she attended as many sports and school events for these 5 grandchildren as possible while she volunteered at Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park and her neighborhood elementary school, Florence Elementary. While it was “convenient” to attend the events for her CA grandchildren, Clarice frequently flew back to Michigan for special events with her daughters and granddaughters Kristin and Erika.

Family was always important to Clarice. She made time to attend all major events for all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She participated in gallery openings, weddings, graduations, births, first communions and moves. No matter where the event took place, Clarice was there from Tiburon to Los Angeles to Washington DC to Kalamazoo to Madison to Minneapolis to Los Mochis Mexico to Prescott AZ. Holidays were important too. Clarice spent major holidays, including birthdays, with family splitting her time between Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona and California.

Clarice was a master correspondent with family, extended family and friends. She stayed in contact with all aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews frequently calling many, always available for advice, sending them birthday and holiday cards. After she got her iPad when she was 90 she used text and Facebook to keep in touch and track everyone. Clarice also continued to stay in contact with high school classmates and old neighbors and friends. When she was home in San Diego, so many family and friends visited from all over the country and world. Her condo was always open for guests. Sometimes she had houseguests who became roommates for a brief period.

Clarice also kept “retiring” because she wanted, even needed to travel. She and Dean had experience a few trips to Boca Raton FL but the only family trips were moving to a new location or to visit relatives in IA. She liked living in different areas of the country and she wanted to see more, maybe all 50 states and a few countries?

She started traveling as much as possible. “Back home” trips to Kalamazoo, Madison, Minneapolis, and Kanawha. Clarice, LauriJo, Kristin and Erika took a road trip from MI to Florida to visit Disney World. She visited Dale in Washington. In 1989 she flew to Los Mochis, Mexico for Dale and Elsa’s wedding.

Needing to feed her sense of adventure and desire to travel and visit all 50 states, Clarice at the age of 63 with her best friend Marge Cloutier, a Madison WI neighbor who also had moved to CA, decided to see the country. They road tripped cross country with no specific itinerary to Maine and back visiting many friends and family along the way. She wanted to see more than this country. There were cruises. She joined niece Joan Hillary on a cruise to Hawaii and one to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. With her daughters Dee and LauriJo, Clarice went to Panama visiting Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Columbia. She spent a week in St. Croix with niece Patty Larson. Clarice went for almost a month to New Zealand with her friend and coworker Margaret Hollerbach.

Birthday mile stones were important to Clarice. At age 70 she and 14 year old grandson Blake road tripped from San Diego to Minneapolis only to find a surprise birthday celebration for her at daughter Dee and son-in-law Paul’s home with her entire family. The party continued in Kanawha IA with her siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, her mother and other relatives.

In 2000 for her 75th birthday Clarice again drove from San Diego to Minneapolis. After the birthday celebration, her granddaughter Kristin and daughter Dee joined her on a road trip across the northern states back to San Diego. More of those 50 states were off the “to visit list.”

She loved going almost anywhere. Two years in a row she joined Dee and Paul, Kristin, and LauriJo in Cabo San Lucas. She traveled multiple times (after age 76 mostly by plane) to the midwest often twice a year for family weddings, births of her great granddaughters Ruby and Audrey Kujawa and Sabrina Leland, birthdays, holidays, graduations, Ruby’s and Audrey’s first communions, visiting her mother Ruth and sibling Doris, Lowell, Marion, Russ and JoAnn, visiting nieces and nephews, cousins, sister-in-law Gwen Amunson, visiting old classmates, funerals, family reunions and just to visit with both daughters.

For her 80th birthday, Clarice celebrated on Catalina Island with her son Dana and Laurie Seeley. Her 85th birthday found her traveling with Dee, Paul and niece Joan Hillary on a cruise to Alaska, capping her desire to visit all 50 states.

In her many years she visited Canada, Mexico, Russia, Norway, Iceland, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Panama. She often joked about how travel and things had changed since her band/choir trip to Omaha when she was in high school.

Clarice was a member of a strong extended Norwegian family who has celebrated Larson-Jaatun family reunions since 1927. In 2000 she and her sister, Doris, traveled to Norway via Iceland for the 73rd Larson-Jaatun family reunion. Clarice attended every family reunion that was usually held every 5 years in Eagle Grove IA. Summer of 2016 found Clarice returning to Klepp, Norway. This time with Dee and Paul, grandsons Blake, Scott and Brad and granddaughter Abby along with about 45 other US relatives who then joined more than 100 Norway relatives for the 89th family reunion. She celebrated her 91st birthday in Norway. The following summer July 2017 Clarice traveled back to Iowa for the 90th anniversary reunion of the Larson-Jaatun family and her 92nd birthday.

During the 36 years she lived in San Diego Clarice was very community conscious. She volunteer for more than 25 years working at the election polls, participating in the Hillcrest City Council, volunteering at her local school, actively involving herself as an officer in her Condo Association and making many friends in the Hillcrest neighborhood.

An avid reader, Clarice always had a pile of books nearby often reading many at once. She was fond of books in many genres. You could find her weekly at the local University Heights Public Library. She was an active member of the Hillcrest Mystery Book Club in for many years. Clarice and great-granddaughter Ruby had a long distance book club where she would read Ruby’s books and they would discuss them by phone. Along with reading, Clarice loved doing crossword puzzles in ink. Maybe this stemmed from winning a spelling bee when she was in grade school.

Clarice was extremely proud of all of her children’s and grandchildren’s accomplishments and passions for education, learning, the environment, entrepreneurships, community involvement and the arts. She was known to brag of them often.

Welcoming her to heaven on October 8, 2018 were Clarice’s husband Dean and son Dale, parents Joe and Ruth, her sisters Marion and Doris, her brothers Lowell and the Colonel Russ. Her last request was to have her “ashes dumped in the Pacific Ocean so that I can finally learn to swim.” The family carried out her wishes on November 3, 2018 on a catamaran in the Pacific Ocean at Dana Point CA. An in-memory stone can be found in the family plot in the Evergreen cemetery in Clarion IA.

Clarice leaves behind her daughter Dee Ann (Paul) Lundell, son Dana, daughter LauriJo, son Timothy; granddaughters Kristin (Dan) Kujawa, Erika Leland, Abby Yarger, grandsons Blake, Scott, Brad, and Jack Yarger; great-granddaughters Ruby and Audrey Kujawa and Sabrina Leland; daughter-in-law Elsa Yarger; her younger sister JoAnn Betten Miller, many, many nieces, nephews, and cousins in the USA and Norway; three high school classmates and many friends and neighbors in Hillcrest San Diego.

She was deeply loved and is greatly missed. Please join the family for stories, photos, memories, coffee and cookies on Saturday, July 13, 2019 at Ewing Funeral Home, 1801 Central Avenue East in Clarion, Iowa from 1:00 PM -3:00 PM to celebrate the life of this phenomenally wonderful woman.