ObituariesSeptember 16, 2009

Clara Glasby, 90, Clarkston
Clara Glasby, 90, Clarkston

Clara Glasby passed away Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009, at Clarkston Care Center.

She was born March 4, 1919, at Lansdale, Pa. Her parents were Elinora and Samuel Blackburn. She graduated from Lansdale High School in 1936.

In 1940, she came to Orogrande to spend the summer with her father, who, after losing his job during the Depression, headed west to mine gold on a placer claim. Blackburn had a pack string during the Buffalo Hump Gold Rush and took supplies to the boom towns on Buffalo Hump in 1898 and 1899. He returned to his native Pennsylvania, married an Eastern girl in 1910 and remained there until 1934.

Clara traveled west to visit her father, who was working with George Glasby for Henderson Gold Dredging Co. on Crooked River near Orogrande. Clara remembered when she sent pill boxes of placer gold home to her mother, who took them to the Philadelphia Mint, where she received $16 for an ounce.

After becoming engaged to George Glasby, she returned to Pennsylvania with her father, who was sick. She lost her father in the spring of 1941. She moved west and married George at Carson City, Nev. He was diamond drilling at Walker Mine, Calif. After a few weeks there, the mine caved in. During the next few years Glasby was sent for exploration work at Battle Mountain and Getchell Mine, Nev.; Dillon and Cook City, Mont.; and Valley and Northport, Wash.

They settled at Spalding, her husband's hometown, where he worked for the Pataha Lumber Co. Later he formed the Glasby Well Drilling Co. Clara worked at Copey's Restaurant and Gas Station on the Clearwater River at Spalding, and for the Watsons at the Watson's Store and Post Office, now a historical landmark in the Nez Perce National Historical Park.

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Clara was appointed as acting Spalding postmaster in 1962 and received her permanent appointment in 1964. She was postmaster for 34 years, retiring in 1998.

In 1968, Clara was appointed the Lewiston Morning Tribune's correspondent from Spalding, a job she held until 1978. She wrote more than 300 bylined articles, mostly about Nez Perce culture and tribal members. She received many first- and second-place awards from the Idaho Press Women.

Clara was seeded No. 1 on her high school tennis team and was an expert swimmer, diver and an amateur artist in her younger days; she was especially good at drawing profiles of people she knew.

She is survived by two children, Gordon and his wife Nora of Clarkston, and Cynthia of Moscow. Clara's husband, George, passed away in 1981, and her sister, Elinor Jarinko of Lansdale, also preceded her in death.

Visitation for Clara will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday at Malcom's Brower-Wann Funeral Home, 1711 18th St. in Lewiston. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the funeral home. Burial will follow at Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston.

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