Clare Lois (Hoecker) Childers 1925 - 2017
Clare Childers passed away at the age of 92 on Oct. 9, as a result of complications from brain cancer.
A lifelong resident of Woodland, Clare was born to Charles Hoecker, machinist, and Louise (Moore) Hoecker, Christian Science reader, at the family home on Third Street in June 1925. She was married to Leland Childers from 1944 to 1965. During this time, in her words, she was "chief cook, bottle-washer, carpenter, laundress, barber, painter, gardener, accountant, glazier, nurse, vet, seamstress" for her "dad, husband, three sons, one daughter, assorted visiting relatives, a string of cats, and one dog." To her children, she was all this and the inspiration for a lifelong love of literature and learning.
Clare enrolled in college on her 40th birthday, in 1965, following divorce. She worked at several jobs to put herself through college and graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in English in 1969. Upon graduation, she was employed as a library assistant and then a library supervisor at UC Davis Shields Library until her retirement in 1987. During her 30 years of "retirement", Clare devoted herself to numerous volunteer efforts focused on local history, library preservation, senior citizen support, and hearing disability awareness. Her efforts included years of volunteer work preserving historical maps and blueprints at the Yolo County Archives; transcribing 19th century Yolo County church records; indexing all newspapers published historically in Yolo County; serving on the Methodist Church History Committee and authoring the book A Journey of Faith: The Woodland United Methodist Church 1852-2002; serving as librarian of the Methodist Church, Senior Center, and Leisureville libraries; scheduling Community Care Car riders and drivers; serving on the board of Senior Center, Inc., and the local chapter of Californians for Disability Rights; serving on the Advisory Committee for Disabled Students at Woodland Community College and the city's Americans with Disabilities Act Advisory Committee; and establishing and leading "Hear! Here!", a local chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America, which raised awareness of hearing loss and organized hearing tests for preschool children throughout Yolo County.
In 1997, the Friends of the Yolo County Archives presented Clare with their President's Outstanding Service Award. In 2000, the Woodland City Council presented her with a Community Service Award for her "outstanding civic leadership to the community and dedication to local service groups". She considered this award "the Nobel Prize of Woodland", commenting, "I get my greatest reward from improving access for the hearing impaired and historical research for the community". In keeping with her commitment to supporting scientific research, Clare arranged for the donation of her temporal bones to the National Bone Laboratory at UCLA to further hearing loss research, and she willed her remains to the UCSF Willed Body Program.
In accordance with Clare's wishes, no funeral service will be held. The family will hold a remembrance at a later date. Clare was preceded in death by her parents and her four siblings, Charles Hoecker, Dorothy Barnes, Ellen O'Kane, and Bill Hoecker. She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, David Childers (WHS 1962) and Mary Ann Kroeger, Brian (WHS1965) and Gwendolyn Childers, and Joel (WHS 1966) and Mary Childers; her daughter and son-in-law, Roberta Childers and Sudhir Vaikkattil; grandchildren Morgan Childers, Griffin Childers, Emily Coons, Amanda Taylor, and Sarah Myron; seven great-grandchildren; sister-in-law Liz Hoecker; In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Yolo Hospice, http://yolohospice.org.
Published in Daily Democrat from Oct. 14 to Oct. 15, 2017
Shirley A. Gallagher
