Clara L. Hansen

On December 10, 2024, Clara Lou Hansen, Lebanon, Indiana, departed this life after living fully for 94 years. Born in Ogden Utah in 1930 to Spencer and Irene Tribe, she was the middle of three children. In her senior year at Ogden High, from which she graduated in 1948, she was set up on a blind date with the man who would become her husband and the love of her life, Owen P. Hansen. A few years after graduation, and after Owen’s honorable discharge from the Air Force, the couple eloped to Las Vegas where they were married on August 31, 1953, at the “Wee Kirk of the Heather” Wedding Chapel. Their honeymoon was spent in Vegas where the couple celebrated their union (which would last more than 70 years) dancing to the music of Xavier Cugat. Subsequently, over the following years, Clara gave birth to two beautiful daughters, April and Heidi, and ultimately accompanied her husband to Lebanon, Indiana in 1958 where Owen accepted a job with the Lebanon Reporter newspaper. (In several of Owen’s Hans Glances columns, Clara is affectionately referred to as “Sweetie Pie.) After moving to Indiana, Clara set up a comfortable home, building a house in the new subdivision of Northfield, and giving birth to one more daughter, Hope. A few years later, after a move to Elizaville Road, Clara obtained a full-time job with Commercial Filters as an accountant from which she retired in 1995. Clara was also involved in the Jay-Shes, Psi-Iota Xi Sorority, Ulen Country Club and a myriad of school-related programs, dance recitals and community events. She found joy in preparing the annual Christmas banquet for the Lebanon Reporter holiday dinner, decorating and catering the affair herself. Creatively, she relished designing and sewing dance and Halloween costumes for her girls. In later years, Clara enjoyed long car rides, spending time with family and was an avid colorer, filling countless books with beautiful designs. Her amazing determination and memory helped her to continue to be self-sufficient and live at home, where she even managed to continue balancing her checkbook every month until the end of her days here. Clara is survived by her three daughters, April Luria (Tim), Heidi Warren (Christopher), and Hope Hansen Gustavson (Randy), along with three remarkable grandchildren, Kaitlin Warren Dick, Jonas Gustavson and Megan Warren. Her brother, Richard Tribe of Ogden, Utah survives. Proceeding her in death was her soul mate, Owen and an older sister, Betty Herrington. Graveside services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Browns Wonder Cemetery in Lebanon. Myers Mortuary and Boone County Crematory have been entrusted with her cremation arrangements. In Clara’s lifetime on this Earth, she witnessed: An economic Depression, five major wars, 16 U.S. Presidents, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the building AND the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the Civil Rights Movement, The Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of JFK, RFK and MLK. The beginning AND the end of The Cold War, the Moon Landing, the ratification AND the overturning of Roe v Wade, Watergate, AIDS, the Challenger Explosion, the birth of the World Wide Web, 9-11, the invasion of Ukraine, and a Global Pandemic. Therefore, in lieu of flowers or monetary donations, Clara’s family asks that you give someone a hug or a kind word in her memory because as time goes by and things seem to change so swiftly, the only real enduring constant is…LOVE.

Clara L. Hansen

November 25, 1930 - December 10, 2024