Clara Falkenrath was our indomitable matriarch. As the first of Viola and Andy Mechow's five daughters, and the first of Rena and Harvey Wallace's grandchildren, she was born a leader.
By the time Clara graduated from Hermiston High in 1952, she had already discovered her passion for debate and chorus. In her senior yearbook, she was remembered for her role on-stage as a "rootin', tootin' can-can girl." Yearbook staff also noted, "To win an argument with Clara is like receiving a gold medal."
Shortly after graduation, Clara landed a job as a car hop. Fortuitously, she was terrible at it! She dropped more than a few trays of food. After dropping one such tray on herself, her customer John Renault Falkenrath offered to take her home to change clothes. They were married 28 days later. Clara and John believed that the success of their marriage was the punchline to the funniest joke ever told. After all, Clara's primary goal was "to get the hell out of Hermiston," and John spent a few days of their short courtship in jail for running up a tab under an alias.
Clara and John lived in La Grande and Portland for a couple of years before relocating to California. They raised their four children in San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Livermore. Clara loved to host family parties. There were seemingly infinite reasons to invite parents, sisters, and nieces and nephews over for the weekend. Since all of Clara and John's children were musically gifted, get-togethers often featured an impromptu concert in the living room or garage.
While Clara was focused on homemaking, her duties as PTA president, and supporting John's electronics repair shop, she had less-than-meaningful stints in retail and food service. In the 1970s, she got around to reading The Feminine Mystique, and she decided that she wanted a career in child daycare. She worked her way up from the role of daycare aide to daycare director and, at one point, co-owner of the Rainbow Children's Center. In 1988, Clara received her associate degree in Early Childhood Development from Chabot College.
Clara was professionally resilient as well, but she was never compensated for it. She lived through more than her fair share of tragedy: childhood poverty, Polycystic Kidney Disease and two types of cancer, a fire that destroyed John's shop, another fire that destroyed their home, an infant son temporarily disabled by spinal meningitis, and the untimely deaths of all four of their children including one child who died by suicide when he was only 14. Her positivity was unforced and genuine. She didn't attend her own pity parties alone. Clara inspired others to face difficult situations with conviction, grace and laughter.
We remember Clara for her irreverent sense of humor, her shameless delight in gossip, her enthrallment with soap operas, her years of song with Mission Valley Chorus and Sweet Adelines, her obsession with thrift stores and garage sales, her Matryoshka doll and Mary Engelbreit collections, her love of John's roses, her disdain for his love of cats, and her earnest commitment to activities like bean bag baseball and kazoo band at her senior community in Happy Valley, The Forum.
Clara is remembered by her sisters Ella and Andrea; her daughter-in-law Melissa; her grandchildren Cindy, Amy, Morgan, Becca, Nick, Sam and Veronica; her great grandchildren Emily, John Christopher Jr., Sunny, R.J., Carson and Reagan; her great great grandchild Harrison; her cousins; her nieces and nephews; and the chosen family she shared a heart-connection with. Clara is joined in death with her husband John Renault; her sisters Mimi and Neva; her sisters-in-law Pat and Eve; her children Susan, John Andrew, Bob and Bill; her daughter-in-law Lisa; her grandson John Christopher; and the many others who came before them.
To borrow a lyric from one of Clara's favorite songs, she "tried in [her] way to be free." She gave us the gift of her authentic self. She believed in the power of loving connection and presence. She taught us well.
Legacy.com, 8/23/22
By the time Clara graduated from Hermiston High in 1952, she had already discovered her passion for debate and chorus. In her senior yearbook, she was remembered for her role on-stage as a "rootin', tootin' can-can girl." Yearbook staff also noted, "To win an argument with Clara is like receiving a gold medal."
Shortly after graduation, Clara landed a job as a car hop. Fortuitously, she was terrible at it! She dropped more than a few trays of food. After dropping one such tray on herself, her customer John Renault Falkenrath offered to take her home to change clothes. They were married 28 days later. Clara and John believed that the success of their marriage was the punchline to the funniest joke ever told. After all, Clara's primary goal was "to get the hell out of Hermiston," and John spent a few days of their short courtship in jail for running up a tab under an alias.
Clara and John lived in La Grande and Portland for a couple of years before relocating to California. They raised their four children in San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Livermore. Clara loved to host family parties. There were seemingly infinite reasons to invite parents, sisters, and nieces and nephews over for the weekend. Since all of Clara and John's children were musically gifted, get-togethers often featured an impromptu concert in the living room or garage.
While Clara was focused on homemaking, her duties as PTA president, and supporting John's electronics repair shop, she had less-than-meaningful stints in retail and food service. In the 1970s, she got around to reading The Feminine Mystique, and she decided that she wanted a career in child daycare. She worked her way up from the role of daycare aide to daycare director and, at one point, co-owner of the Rainbow Children's Center. In 1988, Clara received her associate degree in Early Childhood Development from Chabot College.
Clara was professionally resilient as well, but she was never compensated for it. She lived through more than her fair share of tragedy: childhood poverty, Polycystic Kidney Disease and two types of cancer, a fire that destroyed John's shop, another fire that destroyed their home, an infant son temporarily disabled by spinal meningitis, and the untimely deaths of all four of their children including one child who died by suicide when he was only 14. Her positivity was unforced and genuine. She didn't attend her own pity parties alone. Clara inspired others to face difficult situations with conviction, grace and laughter.
We remember Clara for her irreverent sense of humor, her shameless delight in gossip, her enthrallment with soap operas, her years of song with Mission Valley Chorus and Sweet Adelines, her obsession with thrift stores and garage sales, her Matryoshka doll and Mary Engelbreit collections, her love of John's roses, her disdain for his love of cats, and her earnest commitment to activities like bean bag baseball and kazoo band at her senior community in Happy Valley, The Forum.
Clara is remembered by her sisters Ella and Andrea; her daughter-in-law Melissa; her grandchildren Cindy, Amy, Morgan, Becca, Nick, Sam and Veronica; her great grandchildren Emily, John Christopher Jr., Sunny, R.J., Carson and Reagan; her great great grandchild Harrison; her cousins; her nieces and nephews; and the chosen family she shared a heart-connection with. Clara is joined in death with her husband John Renault; her sisters Mimi and Neva; her sisters-in-law Pat and Eve; her children Susan, John Andrew, Bob and Bill; her daughter-in-law Lisa; her grandson John Christopher; and the many others who came before them.
To borrow a lyric from one of Clara's favorite songs, she "tried in [her] way to be free." She gave us the gift of her authentic self. She believed in the power of loving connection and presence. She taught us well.
Legacy.com, 8/23/22
Clara Falkenrath was our indomitable matriarch. As the first of Viola and Andy Mechow's five daughters, and the first of Rena and Harvey Wallace's grandchildren, she was born a leader.
By the time Clara graduated from Hermiston High in 1952, she had already discovered her passion for debate and chorus. In her senior yearbook, she was remembered for her role on-stage as a "rootin', tootin' can-can girl." Yearbook staff also noted, "To win an argument with Clara is like receiving a gold medal."
Shortly after graduation, Clara landed a job as a car hop. Fortuitously, she was terrible at it! She dropped more than a few trays of food. After dropping one such tray on herself, her customer John Renault Falkenrath offered to take her home to change clothes. They were married 28 days later. Clara and John believed that the success of their marriage was the punchline to the funniest joke ever told. After all, Clara's primary goal was "to get the hell out of Hermiston," and John spent a few days of their short courtship in jail for running up a tab under an alias.
Clara and John lived in La Grande and Portland for a couple of years before relocating to California. They raised their four children in San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Livermore. Clara loved to host family parties. There were seemingly infinite reasons to invite parents, sisters, and nieces and nephews over for the weekend. Since all of Clara and John's children were musically gifted, get-togethers often featured an impromptu concert in the living room or garage.
While Clara was focused on homemaking, her duties as PTA president, and supporting John's electronics repair shop, she had less-than-meaningful stints in retail and food service. In the 1970s, she got around to reading The Feminine Mystique, and she decided that she wanted a career in child daycare. She worked her way up from the role of daycare aide to daycare director and, at one point, co-owner of the Rainbow Children's Center. In 1988, Clara received her associate degree in Early Childhood Development from Chabot College.
Clara was professionally resilient as well, but she was never compensated for it. She lived through more than her fair share of tragedy: childhood poverty, Polycystic Kidney Disease and two types of cancer, a fire that destroyed John's shop, another fire that destroyed their home, an infant son temporarily disabled by spinal meningitis, and the untimely deaths of all four of their children including one child who died by suicide when he was only 14. Her positivity was unforced and genuine. She didn't attend her own pity parties alone. Clara inspired others to face difficult situations with conviction, grace and laughter.
We remember Clara for her irreverent sense of humor, her shameless delight in gossip, her enthrallment with soap operas, her years of song with Mission Valley Chorus and Sweet Adelines, her obsession with thrift stores and garage sales, her Matryoshka doll and Mary Engelbreit collections, her love of John's roses, her disdain for his love of cats, and her earnest commitment to activities like bean bag baseball and kazoo band at her senior community in Happy Valley, The Forum.
Clara is remembered by her sisters Ella and Andrea; her daughter-in-law Melissa; her grandchildren Cindy, Amy, Morgan, Becca, Nick, Sam and Veronica; her great grandchildren Emily, John Christopher Jr., Sunny, R.J., Carson and Reagan; her great great grandchild Harrison; her cousins; her nieces and nephews; and the chosen family she shared a heart-connection with. Clara is joined in death with her husband John Renault; her sisters Mimi and Neva; her sisters-in-law Pat and Eve; her children Susan, John Andrew, Bob and Bill; her daughter-in-law Lisa; her grandson John Christopher; and the many others who came before them.
To borrow a lyric from one of Clara's favorite songs, she "tried in [her] way to be free." She gave us the gift of her authentic self. She believed in the power of loving connection and presence. She taught us well.
Legacy.com, 8/23/22
By the time Clara graduated from Hermiston High in 1952, she had already discovered her passion for debate and chorus. In her senior yearbook, she was remembered for her role on-stage as a "rootin', tootin' can-can girl." Yearbook staff also noted, "To win an argument with Clara is like receiving a gold medal."
Shortly after graduation, Clara landed a job as a car hop. Fortuitously, she was terrible at it! She dropped more than a few trays of food. After dropping one such tray on herself, her customer John Renault Falkenrath offered to take her home to change clothes. They were married 28 days later. Clara and John believed that the success of their marriage was the punchline to the funniest joke ever told. After all, Clara's primary goal was "to get the hell out of Hermiston," and John spent a few days of their short courtship in jail for running up a tab under an alias.
Clara and John lived in La Grande and Portland for a couple of years before relocating to California. They raised their four children in San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Livermore. Clara loved to host family parties. There were seemingly infinite reasons to invite parents, sisters, and nieces and nephews over for the weekend. Since all of Clara and John's children were musically gifted, get-togethers often featured an impromptu concert in the living room or garage.
While Clara was focused on homemaking, her duties as PTA president, and supporting John's electronics repair shop, she had less-than-meaningful stints in retail and food service. In the 1970s, she got around to reading The Feminine Mystique, and she decided that she wanted a career in child daycare. She worked her way up from the role of daycare aide to daycare director and, at one point, co-owner of the Rainbow Children's Center. In 1988, Clara received her associate degree in Early Childhood Development from Chabot College.
Clara was professionally resilient as well, but she was never compensated for it. She lived through more than her fair share of tragedy: childhood poverty, Polycystic Kidney Disease and two types of cancer, a fire that destroyed John's shop, another fire that destroyed their home, an infant son temporarily disabled by spinal meningitis, and the untimely deaths of all four of their children including one child who died by suicide when he was only 14. Her positivity was unforced and genuine. She didn't attend her own pity parties alone. Clara inspired others to face difficult situations with conviction, grace and laughter.
We remember Clara for her irreverent sense of humor, her shameless delight in gossip, her enthrallment with soap operas, her years of song with Mission Valley Chorus and Sweet Adelines, her obsession with thrift stores and garage sales, her Matryoshka doll and Mary Engelbreit collections, her love of John's roses, her disdain for his love of cats, and her earnest commitment to activities like bean bag baseball and kazoo band at her senior community in Happy Valley, The Forum.
Clara is remembered by her sisters Ella and Andrea; her daughter-in-law Melissa; her grandchildren Cindy, Amy, Morgan, Becca, Nick, Sam and Veronica; her great grandchildren Emily, John Christopher Jr., Sunny, R.J., Carson and Reagan; her great great grandchild Harrison; her cousins; her nieces and nephews; and the chosen family she shared a heart-connection with. Clara is joined in death with her husband John Renault; her sisters Mimi and Neva; her sisters-in-law Pat and Eve; her children Susan, John Andrew, Bob and Bill; her daughter-in-law Lisa; her grandson John Christopher; and the many others who came before them.
To borrow a lyric from one of Clara's favorite songs, she "tried in [her] way to be free." She gave us the gift of her authentic self. She believed in the power of loving connection and presence. She taught us well.
Legacy.com, 8/23/22
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