LoVene Lucille (Kraus) Claypole was a trailblazer, a patriot, a teacher, an accountant, a community-builder, a hard worker, and a world traveler. She believed in honesty, always keeping her word, self-reliance, and doing the best she could at her work. Daughter of Hazel and Irvin Kraus, LoVene was born October 26, 1930, in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up on a farm in Chesterfield, Missouri and graduated as valedictorian from her grade school class of three. LoVene’s childhood experiences shaped her lifelong work ethic—riding along in her Daddy’s truck to deliver water around St. Louis County, baling hay with her sister MauDell during the summers, and at one high school job, killing 700 chickens a day. LoVene continued to value hard work throughout her life, always working multiple jobs, keeping a tidy and well-managed home and yard, and, many years later, working hard to recover after she broke her hip at 89, quickly regaining full mobility of her legs and living for five more quality years in her home. LoVene also developed a lifelong love of dancing when growing up, going to dance halls in high school and college to dance the jitterbug with her friends, beaus, and sister MauDell. LoVene last danced just a month ago at her granddaughter’s wedding.

Following graduation from high school, LoVene’s life was forever impacted by a sobering event, the death of her boyfriend Dale Burkhardt (1948) in a tragic automobile accident. Unmoored, she worked several jobs before deciding to go to college with her sister MauDell at the University of Missouri. Always a strong and determined woman, LoVene worked through her grief and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1953 with a BS in Business and Public Administration with a focus in Accounting and a minor in Psychology. In college, LoVene made many lifelong friends as a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority (Alpha Nu Chapter). She remained an active member of AXO for the rest of her life, founding the AXO Zeta Sigma chapter at Southwest Missouri State University, serving for ten years as their financial advisor, and serving on the AXO House Corporation Board.

LoVene moved to Springfield, Missouri after she met her first husband, Gene Lampe (DOD 3-20-14), where they purchased and ran the Cloud Drift Motel together for three years until they divorced. Her daughter, Perri Lampe (born 1958), is from that marriage. Wanda Lampe, Gene’s wife of 45 years, became an integral friend and family member to LoVene, especially in her later years. LoVene married her second husband, Paul Claypole (DOD 4-23-1995) in 1968. They were happily married for 27 years until Paul died.

LoVene was a trailblazer—courageous, adventurous, and determined. She was the first woman to earn an MBA at Southwest Missouri State University in 1972; she raised her daughter Perri as a single mom in the 1960s; and she was a world traveler, traveling to 173 different countries on all 7 continents. LoVene’s initial interest in travel was sparked by her 9th grade homeroom teacher who taught her about geography. LoVene took her first trip abroad on a ship to Europe in 1954 and began traveling extensively with her sister MauDell after they were both widowed. For nearly 30 years, LoVene and MauDell traveled as a duo, with friends, and often as part of the “the Fab Five” with Perri (daughter), Tammy (niece), and Duri (granddaughter). LoVene’s adventures are too numerous to detail here, but just to name a few: she white water rafted on the Zambezi river, navigated Romania shortly after the fall of the communist government using cigarettes as currency, rode an ostrich in South Africa, an elephant in Nepal, and a camel in Morocco, dealt with three punctured tires while driving a car across Namibia, rode an ATV through the Mexican jungle at 91, and amassed an extensive collection of oriental rugs from countries around the world. LoVene truly lived her 94 years to the fullest.

From age 11, when she knitted argyle socks and wrote letters to the troops in WWII, LoVene was a true patriot who spent a lifetime involved in political action and advocating for causes she believed in at the local and national level. She was a life-long Republican, serving as a committee woman of the 135th legislative district since the early 1960s and as a presidential elector in 1992. She attended three presidential inaugurations and three national Republican conventions. LoVene co-founded the Greene County Republican BBQ, now the TARGET BBQ, in 1960, and in 2013, she was recognized as the Greene County Republican of the Year. LoVene followed the news and educated herself about both national and world events through her travels, non-fiction books, and by closely reading the newspaper every day. In her retirement, LoVene and her daughter Perri traveled to all but two presidential libraries.

LoVene received her teaching certificate from Southwest Missouri State University in 1963 and first taught English in Everton, Missouri for one year. During this year, she told one of her students that if he ever made an A on a spelling test, she would stand on her head. When he did, she kept her word and the photo and news story of her standing on her head went international. LoVene went on to teach accounting, general business, and other courses at Mt. Vernon High School for 26.5 years, retiring in 1991. She taught her students principles of dependability, honesty, hard work, responsibility, and money management. As one of her students said, “This lady was never content with anything but my best. She not only taught me accounting, but she taught me life.” LoVene maintained lifelong friendships with many of her former students and was as active in educational associations in Missouri as she was in the Republican party, serving on the Southwest Teachers Credit Union Board (1981-1996), teaching prisoners at the Federal Medical Center, and receiving the Distinguished Service Award from the Missouri Business Education Association in 1991.

LoVene was also an accountant and expert money-manager. She developed an interest in bookkeeping in high school and her first bookkeeping job was in 1948 for Mr. Edwin Paradoski, CPA, whom she greatly admired. From this time until she turned 90, LoVene did tax returns for clients, at one time managing 50 returns simultaneously. LoVene also worked the cashier’s office during the summer at the Ozark Empire Fair for 39 years and was an accountant for Party Universe for ~7 years. In her personal life, LoVene budgeted meticulously, keeping detailed spreadsheets and accounts of her spending. She long practiced what the youth today call “envelope budgeting,” in which you divide cash for your monthly expenses into envelopes labeled by category (‘groceries’, ‘dinners out’, etc.), and she always hunted for bargains, coupons, and frequent flier points. Using these skills, LoVene was able to afford incredible world travels, plan for her future, and provide for her family, all on a teacher’s salary.

LoVene was a meticulous record-keeper and self-made archivist. LoVene always loved to hear “stories about people,” as an avid reader of biographies and an eager listener to friends and strangers alike. She also wanted her story to be told, keeping detailed records of her own life and the lives of those close to her, including diaries and letters from 80+ years, scrapbooks of her many travels, scrupulously labeled photos, annotated newspaper clippings, folders on various celebrities, and accounting records of nearly everything she ever purchased. While this obituary is not (yet) the biography her granddaughter promised her she would write, she hopes it passes muster.

LoVene, a lifelong teacher, imparted many lessons to those close to her: how to make a bed with hospital corners, how to be a good mom, how to build a community, how to listen to others, how to say what you mean, how to live according to your principles, how to participate and advocate for what you believe in, how to travel on a budget, how to manage money, how to live life to the fullest, and much more. We hope that in honor of LoVene, each of you can pass on a lesson you learned from her to someone you love.

A memorial service to celebrate LoVene’s life will be held at 11AM on Tuesday, May 6, at Greenlawn Funeral Home South, 441 W Battlefield Rd, Springfield, Missouri. There will be a visitation at the same location at 10AM. She will be buried to the north of her husband Paul Claypole at Hazelwood Cemetery (her gravestone has an elephant on it, making it easy for visitors to find her).

LoVene was a connector and a community builder, making friends in all areas of her life and putting in the effort to keep in touch and connect people with each other. LoVene kept in touch with friends from her childhood, her sorority, trips abroad, teachers, students, co-workers, priests, neighbors, and political life. She also created community for others through her service to AXO, Green Haven Nursing Home, Ozarks Counseling Center, the Republican Party, and more. She also taught those she loved how to build communities of their own. LoVene was preceded in death by Paul Lee Claypole (husband), MauDell Breeden (sister), Tarri Breeden (niece), and many lifelong friends (Dale Dickmann, Ann and Bob Niemann, Mary Jane Horner, Kathy Davidson, Marylin Huffman, and more). LoVene is survived by her daughter Perri Lind Lampe; her granddaughter Duri Lucille Lampe Long (Patrick Fiorilli); her sister NaOma Levy; her extended family Tammy Casperson (Mike), Wanda Lampe, Trent Breeden (Lynn), Kenneth Levy, and Caroline Levy (Mark); lifelong friends Marilyn Hornbrook, Angela Elliott, Deborah Botts, Sandy Corby, Ed Morton, Shirley Wadleigh, and Ellen Koenemann; and many other friends including former students, neighbors, and Alpha Chi and Republican friends. We also extend a heartfelt thanks to all those who have been so dear to LoVene in the final years of her life, especially Pat Bezdek, Brenda Jones, Jim Brown, Ruth Marshall, and her caregivers, Julie Martin, Joy Martin, Helen Owen, and Cheryl Curbow.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in honor of LoVene Claypole to the Ozarks Counseling Center, where LoVene was a member of the board of directors from 1995-2000 (614 South Avenue, Springfield, MO 65806) and/or Save the Elephants, a charity LoVene donated to regularly (Wildlife Conservation Network, 209 Mississippi Street, San Francisco, CA 94107; make checks payable to Wildlife Conservation Network). LoVene also donated over 10 gallons of blood to the American Red Cross during her lifetime, and we encourage those who are able to follow in her footsteps.

LoVene’s care has been entrusted to Greenlawn Funeral Home 441 W. Battlefield Springfield, MO 65807, http://www.greenlawnfuneralhome.com