Maxine Jacroux-Claussen
Maxine Jacroux-Claussen, 84, died May 4, 2009, at a hospital near her family home in Glen Karn, Ohio.
Prior to her death, she wrote her own life history, which was condensed by her great niece, into the following.
Mrs. Claussen was raised in the village of Delisle, where she attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse. In the eighth grade, she attended school in Arcanum, Ohio, and graduated in the class of 1942. On her 18th birthday, she began work at Dayton Power and Light, while taking night classes at Miami Jacobs Business School, studying accounting.
In the 1940s, Mrs. Claussen traveled the country before moving to a farm near Sidney, Ohio. Always active in her community, she started a 4-H club and helped reopen a small, vacant church, the Bunker Hill Church.
In 1949, she moved to Goldendale where she bought a ranch and built her home. She became an active member of the Methodist Church and taught Sunday School.
In the 1970s, she was awarded ABWA Woman of the Year Award, a proud accomplishment, and joined what would be a lifelong passion of hers, The Old Time Fiddlers. She learned to play the fiddle and cited her membership in the OTF as the moment "the real fun began." She loved playing music with the OTF and performing shows at nursing homes, fairs, rodeos, and parades. All proceeds earned by the OTF were donated to children who, like Mrs. Claussen, wanted to play music.
Never hesitant to help others, in 1984, Mrs. Claussen returned to Ohio to tend to her ill mother and help care for her grand-nephew. Upon her mother's passing, she returned to Washington.
In 2006, she acquired her home in Glen Karn, Ohio. The home had been rumored to have been in her family for several generations, but over time had succumbed to the years of age and neglect. Refusing to lose a piece of her family's history, she rallied family members to help restore and rebuild the home. She called her home in Glen Karn a wonderful place to live and she was even able to realize her dream of opening her own antique and hobby shop in the storeroom of her house. She called it "The Place."
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by first husband, Richard Jacroux; second husband Glenn Claussen; brother Bruce Moore; nephews Chris Lane Ketring and Clayton Moore; niece Dawn Lechler; and four great-nephews.
She is survived by sister Mary Ketring, Winchester, Ind.; and numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great, great-nieces and nephews.
Mrs. Claussen was cremated and requested that half of her ashes be spread near her family home in Ohio and half in the mountains of Washington.
