The kindness of a Dexter teacher to a family living in poverty during the Great Depression is evident in a family story from those years. Since Delbert and Donald Wilson didn’t have suitable clothes for the junior banquet, they didn’t want to go.
Miss Oehlman came to the house. She and their mother Leora sat outside on the top step, talking quietly. “They are important members of their class,” Miss Oelman said. “I’m sure I can borrow suits for them, if it would be all right with you.”
The brothers got to attend the banquet.
Louise Oehlman was also a favorite teacher of my mother’s, who was Delbert and Donald’s younger sister.
Recently I learned more about this remarkable woman. When she taught in Dexter, W.D. Clampitt was the school superintendent.
Mr. Clampitt and his wife had three children. Doris was born in 1929, Ralph in 1931, and Lois in1935. During WWII, the Clampitts moved to Johnston, Iowa, where he was superintendent of schools.
Doris Clampitt died in 1943, at only age 14. Mrs. Clampitt died three years later, leaving Mr. Clampitt a widower with a son who was 15 and an 11-year-old daughter. Mr. Clampitt died two years later, leaving two children, ages 17 and 13.
Louise Oehlman returned to her hometown of Derby, Iowa, where she served as the school superintendent for twenty years.
I found information about the orphaned Clampitt children through Find a Grave. From the obituary of the youngest daughter, Lois: “Upon her parents early passing, she was raised by a dear family friend Louise Oehlman in Derby, IA.”
I wonder whether my mother knew this story about the kindness of a favorite teacher.
A year later I got a note from Sheila Kirk, one of the three daughters of Lois Clampitt. She said her mother blessed her with the middle name of Louise.
Sheila grew up knowing Louise Oehlman as Grantie Louise, spending several weeks every summer on her farm in Derby, Iowa, following her around doing the chores. She called her a compassionate and caring person. She’s forever grateful that she gook in her mother Lois during her fragile teenage years.
She said that Wesley David Clampitt was the grandfather she never knew, so she was thankful for documenting his history.
I answered Sheila that I’d learned that W. D. Clampitt’s father (H.T. Clampitt) was a pastor, the first for the Guthrie Center First Christian Church where Grandma Leora and her mother attended for decades. Grandma married Clabe Wilson, who attended Frog Pond School with W. D. Clampitt.