By HDN Staff
JOPLIN Esther Gladys McClellan, 83, Joplin, died Sunday, May 6, 2001 at a Chester nursing home of natural causes.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Bethel Lutheran Church in Joplin. Burial will follow at the Joplin Cemetery. Visitation at Rockman Funeral Chapel, Chester, on Tuesday.
McClellan was born Sept. 17, 1917 to George and Ellen (Ottem) Gunderson and grew up on the family homestead 25 miles north of Chester. She attended Bears Den Country School and graduated from Joplin High School in 1934. She went to Northern Montana College in Havre for one year.
She married W.E. "Ed" McClellan on Oct. 4, 1935 at Kalispell. They made their home at the McClellan farm north of Joplin. In 1948, they moved to Joplin, where they owned and operated McClellan Implement until their retirement in 1963.
They purchased a cabin at Lakeside and for the next 30 years spent their summers in the Flathead Valley and their winters at Joplin.
McClellan continued to spend her summers at Lakeside until her health began to fail in the fall of 1998. She moved to the Liberty County Nursing Home in Chester in the spring of 2000.
She was a charter member of the Immanuel Lutheran Church north of Joplin. She also attended Bethel Lutheran Church in Joplin and was active in the Ladies Aide.
McClellan was active in many organizations, including Liberty County Hospital Guild, Havre Elks, Chester Royal Neighbors of America, and the National Coast Guard Auxiliary at Lakeside. She also was active in the American Red Cross in Joplin in her early years.
She played piano and sang duets in church and at social functions in her youth, and became partial to Country Western music in recent years. She enjoyed flower gardening, bowling, fishing, boating and cards. She also enjoyed traveling and professional sports, particularly baseball and the L.A. Dodgers. She also kept up on local high school sports.
McClellan was preceded in death by her parents; husband, W.E. "Ed" McClellan, who died April 7, 1993; brothers, Eddie and Doug Gunderson; grandchild, Casey Thorson.
Survivors include her daughters, Gloria Thorson of Joplin and Gail Kaaiakamanu of Kaneohe, Hawaii; five grandchildren; two great-granddaughters; numerous nieces and nephews.
