Claire Elizabeth O'Brien

Claire Elizabeth O’Brien, 95, of Sioux City — a military veteran, a high school teacher and counselor, a political and social commentator, and a family matriarch — passed away on November 19, 2017 after a brief illness. Funeral services will be 10:00 A.M. Friday, December 1, 2017 at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service time at the church. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery.
Claire was born in Sioux City, Iowa on December 18, 1921. She was the youngest of three children of James J. O’Brien, yardmaster of the C. St. P. M. & O. Railroad, and Beryl Wemmer O’Brien, a strong-willed woman and feminist who passed along her determination and grit to her daughter. Even when Claire was eight years old living in the Sioux Apartments, Beryl had to explain to Mrs. Brodsky the grounds on which Claire was justified for giving her son, Alvin, a black eye.
After graduating from Central High School in 1940, Claire attended Briar Cliff College, where her studies were interrupted when she volunteered for the women’s auxiliary corps of the United States Navy (WAVES). Claire was always proud of her military service and for helping pave the way for more women to serve their country in the armed forces.
Following the War, Claire completed a bachelor’s degree in English at Briar Cliff College and a master’s degree in history at Southern Methodist University. She then followed her fellow Sioux Citian and friend, Collette Oberembt, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was to become their adopted home for more than fifty years. Claire began work as a high school English teacher at Cedarburg High School in 1956 and later became one of the school’s counselors. Claire’s impact on the lives of many students at Cedarburg was recognized by the establishment of a college scholarship in her name and an invitation to return to Cedarburg in 2010 to be honored at the 50th Class Reunion of the first class she taught at the school.
There probably has never been a more devoted advocate for the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin than Claire, who genuinely believed that the Green Bay Packers, the Milwaukee Brewers, Usingers sausage, Solly’s hamburgers, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Cedarburg Bulldogs, the Gibbsville Cheese Factory, and Winkie’s dime story made Milwaukee the greatest place on earth. She never tired of welcoming and hosting guests to her fair city, or to Lake Michigan or Door County get-aways in the summer.
Claire came from a family of shoppers and she never met a hardware store she didn’t like. She prowled the aisles for the perfect gift, solution, tool, or contraption - including anything that might once and for all stop the damn squirrels from eating the birdseed she so faithfully dispensed for her backyard birds. And in later years, she was particularly enticed by the opportunity to purchase merchandise from the many, many catalogs that streamed to her home; perhaps accounting for the four electric mops recently shipped to her and the cheese, sausages, hams and steaks shipped to everyone else.
Claire was pre-deceased by her brother James O’Brien, her sister Dawn O’Brien, and her niece, Nancy O’Brien Kirchner. Surviving Claire are her nephews and nieces: James O’Brien, Corey Munson, Erin Munson Klopstad and Jill Kirchner Grunst, as well as the ten additional grand nieces and nephews they provided her. Claire reveled in the successes and adventures of her family, so much so that she was glad to lead the famiy in a rousing kazoo parade around the house at Christmas or to brag about their accomplishments whenever she could. Over her lifetime, Claire also developed a vast network of friends and acquaintances who adopted her into their extended families, including Colette Oberembt, Marilyn Murphy, Helen Braunger Kelly, her son-in-law, Don Kirchner, Pat O’Connor and Nancy Hunter, Kathy Kirchner, and Gloria Dottavio from Tony’s Pizza, her favorite place for a plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine.
After she returned to Sioux City from Milwaukee, she had become a member of a Saturday breakfast group where she loved to participate in discussions about the topics of the day. A proud, life-long Democrat who posted a sign for eight years that said, “This Home Supports President Obama,” she became increasingly concerned that a country that formerly could unite in efforts to welcome immigrants, overcome the Great Depression, win World II, invest in national infrastructure, build a space program and advance free, public education for all, had forgotten how to do so.
In memory of Claire, her family recommends you toast her tremendous legacy and impact with a scotch (water on the side with a twist of lemon, please).