EDWARD MCCLARY

Edward McClary

Edward E. McClary died Tuesday, August 10, 1999 at his home in Jackson. He was 84. A longtime business and civic leader, he was retired as district manager for State Farm Insurance Companies, who once honored him as their national manager of the year. He had also served on the board of the Jackson Brick Company, the Heritage Association, the Boy Scout Council, and the former Jackson Exchange Bank. He was a former president and a Paul Harris Fellow of Jackson Rotary Club and former president of Methodist Men of New McKendree Methodist Church where he had served on the board of trustees and taught the adult Sunday School class for more than a quarter of a century. He was also a 32nd degree member of the Masonic Lodge.

McClary moved to Jackson in 1951 from DeSoto, Missouri, where he was a former mayor and helped organize the city manager form of government. He was a founder of DeSoto Little League and Community Chest Chairman.

Born in Bellevue, Mo. March 17, 1915 to the late Robert Starr and Laura Baker McClary, he graduated from Caledonia High School and attended Washington University. He graduated from the ACLU division of Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. He served with the 10th Mountain Infantry in Italy during World War II and was a member of the Altenthal-Joerns Post No. 158 American Legion in Jackson and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

He was married for 58 years to the former Elizabeth Gamel of Festus, Mo., who survives. Also surviving are a sister, Ruth Rathbun of Clayton, Mo., and five children: Lynn Hawkins of Deland, Fla., Laura Avakian of Boston, Mass., Robert McClary of Park Hills, Mo., Edward McClary of San Francisco, Ca., and Jane Oakley of Princeton, NJ. Eight grandchildren survive: Robert and Frances McClary, Amy Hammock, Grant, Kirk, and Scott Hawkins, Carter and Christian Oakley, and one great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Hammock. He was preceded in death by four brothers and four sisters.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 13, at the New McKendree Methodist Church in Jackson with interment later at the Gamel Cemetery in Festus, Mo. Visitation will be held Thursday, Aug. 12, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Chapel in Jackson with Rev. Ed Saferite officiating.

Memorials may be made to St. Francis Hospital Rehabilitation Program or New McKendree Methodist Church.