by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
At Clara Stueve’s birthday party, the cake was way too small to decorate with a candle for every year of her life – 105 candles, to be exact.
Lots of family members and friends gathered Aug. 28 at Arlington Place in St. Joseph to celebrate Stueve’s birthday. Although she is hard of hearing and cannot speak very well, it’s obvious Clara had a good time, enjoying cake and ice cream, with happiness apparent in her frequent smiles.
Clara Schefers was born Aug. 28, 1912 and grew up in Richmond. She met her husband-to-be, Alphonse Stueve of St. Anthony, at a dance, and the couple later married and bought a house at 111 Able St. in St. Joseph where they raised their seven children.
Alphonse passed away 35 years ago at age 72, but all seven of the Stueve children – the oldest nearly 80 – are still living. The others are Dorothy, Marie, Melvin, Dennis, Alice, James and Donald.
“Mom was the homebody type,” said Dennis Stueve, who, at 73, still lives in the same house on Able Street where he was raised. “We didn’t get too fancy with her birthday party because she always likes things to be kept simple with no fuss.”
Stueve, like his father, was an auto mechanic. He bought Stueve’s Garage on St. Joseph’s main street from his father many years ago, but he closed the business 17 years ago.
“Mom was more strict than dad,” Stueve remembered. “I had my share of spankings. We kids would have to go out to the trees and pick off a branch, and then we’d get spanked. But I guess we had it coming. We were naughty sometimes. What kid isn’t?”
Stueve described his mother as quiet and reserved.
“She didn’t get mad too often,” he said. “She was a housewife all of her life. She liked to crochet and knit. She was a good cook and did a lot of clothes washing. She and dad liked to go out dancing every now and then but not that often.”
One of Stueve’s favorite memories of his mother at home is how she loved to work on her quilts in the winter. Stueve, his father and the other children would be outside doing chores, and when they’d come back in the house, there was their mother happily at work on her latest quilt.
About five years ago, Clara moved into Arlington Place, the assisted-living apartments in St. Joseph.
“She watches TV a lot and prays her rosary,” Stueve said. “She likes to visit with other people, although she needs ear phones to hear, and she doesn’t talk really well. But you can always tell when she’s happy because of her smiles. I like to bring her pie and ice cream, and she always likes that.”
Another favorite memory for Stueve is how his mother loved to cook with sauerkraut, often homemade sauerkraut that would ferment in a crockpot.
“Oh, yes, she loves her sauerkraut, like most people of German ancestry,” he said. “Mom is very German, very Catholic.”
The house on Able Street where Stueve lives is filled with so many memories of his siblings, his father, his mother. And what’s really nice, after 105 years, is that he can still enjoy his mother’s company any time he likes – just down the way at Arlington Place.
Clara Stueve holds her 105th birthday cake during a party for her by family, friends and well-wishers at Arlington Place Assisted Living in St. Joseph.
