Claudette Germaine Boucher “Claudy B”

Claudette Germaine Boucher, aka “Claudy B,” passed away on January 8, 2024, after a brief illness. She was born in New Hampshire on February 16,1933, to Gertrude and Edward Boucher and an older sister, Priscilla. Another sister, Margie, arrived later and the Boucher family was complete. Claudette married Phillip LeClerc in 1954 and after they divorced, she raised her four children alone. By the early 1980s, the children were grown, and she left New Hampshire for Seattle, Washington, to be with her sister Priscilla until she passed. She then moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to live with her daughters and when both moved to other locations, she stayed as she loved the hot, dry climate and community of friends there. In her final years, she moved to Oregon to live with her daughter Michelle, and her daughter Lissa joined them in 2023.

Claudy B had a lifetime of hard work and raising a family, experiencing challenge, loss and love but faced it all with courage. She loved flowers and delighted in roadside gardening, which generally involved someone else in the car being elected to stop and pick flowers from someone's private garden! She loved playing scrabble and made many heirloom needlework pieces. Weekends were spent hunting for yard sale treasures – like a magnet, she stopped at every yard sale sign, often before anyone else even knew it was there. And she was the Goodwill version of the country western entertainer, Minnie Pearl – she loved to shop there and let everyone know it by wearing her purchases with the price tags still intact. She also made memorable impressions on people as seen in the words written by a friend: I hadn’t known her long, but I enjoyed our little talks, even the ones we repeated -- which were most of them. I collect naturally formed heart-shaped rocks and I found the perfect one for her: tough, jagged, and a bit lopsided. But when I turned it over, I discovered another heart inside, almost perfect like it had been carved from a long life. That single rock reminded me of Claudette and the life she lived.

Claudy B is survived by her daughters, Michelle and Lissa of Salem, Oregon; her sons, David of Concord, New Hampshire, and Brad of New Hampton, New Hampshire; four grandchildren and a number of great grandchildren. She has been cremated with part of her ashes to be scattered over Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and the other part to be sent to New Hampshire where her family will have a service and lay her to rest in the LeClerc family plot.