Clarine Marjorie McKee Moe
Clarine Marjorie (McKee) Moe, 98, Lake Mills, passed away Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021 at the Lake Mills Care Center. Funeral services for Clarine will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 20, at Salem Lutheran Church with Pastor Joel Guttormson and Mr. Kermit Singelstad officiating. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service at the church. There will be a light lunch to follow. Burial at the Salem Memorial Cemetery will take place at a later date. Memorials may be made to Salem Lutheran Church, Lake Mills, Lake Mills Scholarship Foundation, or a charity of your choice. Schott Funeral Homes-Mittelstadt Chapel is assisting the family with arrangements.
Clarine was born Aug. 30, 1923, at home on the acreage that is now the Hartman place, next to the city airport in Lake Mills. She was the daughter of Cora Eddina (Brua) McKee and Melvin McKee. Her parents later purchased the farm and acreage that sits on the north side of Rice Lake.
Clarine was baptized, confirmed, and married at Salem Lutheran Church, and she was a member there her entire life. She attended school in Lake Mills, graduating in 1941, and she attended Waldorf College graduating from teacher training in May 1943.
Clarine’s first year of teaching, the 1943-44 school year, was a mixed class of third and fourth grades in Slater. She then came home and taught a very large fourth grade class, 42 students, in Lake Mills in 1944-45. Challenged by such a large class, she would pray each morning before going to work “Dear God, please help me get through this day.”
In 1946, she married her high school sweetheart, Walter (Duke) Moe. During their first year of marriage, they lived in Minneapolis, Minn., where she taught at Groveland Elementary School. She missed her hometown and family in Lake Mills, and she and Duke would travel back there almost every weekend. She was invited to again teach in Lake Mills, and they were delighted to move back. A teacher for 42 years, she alternated between first through fourth grades, going where she was most needed.
In 1949, Clarine’s husband Duke went to Elgin, Ill., to the Elgin Watch College. They bought Weed’s Jewelry, Lake Mills, and operated it as Moe’s Jewelry for 12 years.
Clarine and Duke enjoyed almost 64 years of marriage. They were blessed with one daughter, Pamela Christine Moe, whom they adopted in May of 1958.
Family vacations were a highlight each summer. Often, Clarine’s parents went along on the car trips out west. In addition to several fun resort vacations ‘Up North’, the all-time favorite family vacation was a three-week trip to Europe traveling by train to eight different countries, starting and ending in Norway.
Clarine retired from teaching in Lake Mills in 1987. After her retirement, she and Duke wintered for thirteen years in McAllen, Texas.
Clarine loved to play bridge. She played weekly with a group of dear friends beginning in the 1940s. Later on, she was pleased to be playing the game with many of her former students who became dear friends. She enjoyed gardening and kept several lovely flower beds around the house and in her backyard. She also delighted in mowing the lawn and tending to the bushes around the yard. Later in life, she was happy to be reading books and doing her ‘steps’ to stay healthy. Her ‘steps’ consisted of going up and down the stairway from the kitchen to the basement and back, doing 15 laps each day.
Clarine was a very social person. She enjoyed having coffees and visiting with friends. She also relished gathering with close groups of friends in the evenings‚ either at each other’s homes, or up at The Stables. She was a loving wife, mother, daughter, aunt, cousin and friend. She will be greatly missed.
Clarine is survived by her daughter, Pam (Chuck Merritt); nephew, Lon (Cindy) McKee; niece, Peg McKee (Dean Adams); great-nephew, Bart (Sarah) McKee, their daughter, Maggie, and son, Mac; great-niece, Kelly (Scott) Parrish, son, Bryson, and twin daughters, Isabel and Ashley; and numerous cousins along with other family and friends.
Clarine was preceded in death by her husband, Duke; her brothers: Lewine (Mac) McKee and Wayne McKee; her parents, Cora and Melvin McKee; her grandparents, Edward and Christine Brua; parents-in-law, Manuel and Minnie Sandberg, and Dorothy Sandberg (Ray) Wilson; and sister-in-law, Audy Winden.
