Claremont Obituaries
Mother, minister, volunteer, accountant “With great sadness we announce the passing of the Rev. Miriam Mercado, who died of natural causes, peacefully, in her home on Easter Sunday, April 20, at the age of 101 years,” her family shared. She is pictured below her 101st birthday party. Miriam was born in Puerto Rico on July […]
Former mayor, League of Women Voters stalwart, civic activist To get a sense of Ellen Taylor’s prodigious gifts as an organizer and persuasive advocate, her husband, Marshall Taylor, offered a telling memory from the couple’s early days living in the tiny Nevada town of Tonopah, where he was stationed with the US Air Force. “Ellen’s […]
CUSD head nurse, teacher, world traveler, grandmother Jeannie Cregg, born April 28, 1950 in Baltimore, died in Claremont on April 2 at the age of 68. Jeannie was the second child to Frederick and Mildred Meyer. She graduated from Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland in 1968, and from Western Maryland College in 1972 with […]
Nurse, devoted minister’s wife, quilter, active Pilgrim, volunteer Ruth Jane Barrow Blunt died peacefully of natural causes at Claremont’s Pilgrim Place Health Care Center. She was 94 years old. She was born in Boone, Iowa on October 27, 1924 to Rev. Oscar E. Barrow and Ruby G. Barrow. In 1946, Ruth completed three years of […]
Defense industry veteran, card player, lifelong baseball fan William Edward Kirke, Jr. died March 18 at home in Fort Bragg, California, where he had lived for the past 18 years. He was 82. Born in Ludington, Michigan in 1936 to Elnora and William Edward Kirke, Sr., Bill grew up as an only child after his […]
US Army veteran, dedicated father, active church volunteer Charles Rich Magnusson died March 11 at the age of 89. He was born November 5, 1929 and spent most of his childhood growing up in Riverside, California. He graduated from Ontario’s Chaffey High School, where he earned a varsity letter in swimming. He earned an associates […]
US Navy veteran, hospital executive, tennis, music lover Former Claremont resident Albert Lee Piette died at his home in Santa Rosa, California on February 16. He was born July 16, 1933 in Los Angeles to parents Harrison and Elaine Piette, and was one of nine children. The family moved to Baldwin Park in 1940. After attending […]
Pitzer professor, author, family man Stu McConnell, professor emeritus of history at Pitzer College, died February 14 at Pilgrim Place after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 62, and had lived and taught in Claremont for more than half his life. Stuart Charles McConnell was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on July 24, 1956, […]
Loving mother, devoted teacher, longtime volunteer Ruth Joanne Cooke Henzie succumbed to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on March 4 and died peacefully at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. She was 93. She was a longtime resident of Claremont, living at Mount San Antonio Gardens for the past 20 years. Ruth will be remembered as a […]
Intellectual, physician, animal lover, eccentric Rosario Russell Scalise Ross was born August 3, 1951 in Chicago and died peacefully in his sleep on December 20, 2018 at the age of 68. He never knew his mother. She abandoned him as an infant. Instead he grew up in a loving home that consisted of his road […]
Teacher, animal lover, nature enthusiast Noah of Noah’s Ark had nothing on Janice Mix. “If there was ever a person qualified to command a ship full of wild animals, it was Janice Mix,” her family shared. An elementary school teacher for more than 25 years, she lived to share her love of life with every […]
Norma B. Law Trailblazing African American prison warden, ‘Pomona Clarion’ co-founder Norma Bryant Law, age 81 and a longtime resident of Claremont, died March 7 in Ontario, surrounded by her loved ones. Norma was born April 12, 1937, in Ruth, Mississippi to James Wayne Bryant and Ethel Wilcher Bryant. She attended Tennessee State University and […]
Claremont activist, teacher, author, missionary Marilee K. Scaff, teacher and educator, former missionary, and longtime community activist and environmentalist in Claremont, died March 8 at the age of 103. A woman of prodigious intellect and energy, hers was a life well and fully lived. Born November 27, 1915 in San Marcos, Texas, Ms. Scaff was […]
Carolyn Beck, a longtime Claremont resident, died January 27 of complications from dementia. She was 85. The youngest of three sisters, she was born Carolyn Rosner in Los Angeles in 1933, and lived her entire life in California. After graduating from Dorsey High School, Carolyn became friends at work with Charlotte Acree, whose brother […]
Beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, homemaker Patricia Moore Shawn Lawson Christ, “aka Patty, Mommie, and Muzzie,” has been gone 10 years now, and her family wishes to express their continued love for her because she is still deeply missed. She was born in 1918, and became the matriarch of the Bill and Patty Lawson clan […]
Beloved great grandmother, avid golfer, volunteer, teacher Claremont resident Katharine Powell Daub died January 22, 2019 at Claremont Manor at the age of 94. She lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 1949 to until moving to Claremont in 2008. “Kay” was born to Harold and Helen Powell in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1924. She attended the […]
Renaissance man, pianist, ambassador for Chinese culture, professor, chemical engineer Henry Sheng, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Cal Poly Pomona (1978-96), died peacefully in hospice surrounded by his family and former students in Claremont on February 10, 2019. “Henry had many accomplishments, but the most important thing about him was his kind and caring […]