Vera Speake

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Born Aug. 8, 1921, in Chaffee, Missouri, to parents Charles Arthur and Coletta Pauline Pobst Goddard Sr., Vera Goddard Speake, 94, died of complications due to advanced age Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, at her home in Patriots Colony, Williamsburg.

As a child growing up in Chaffee, Vera Goddard lived all through her school years in the house on Yoakum Avenue where she was born, graduating Chaffee High School in 1938.

Married in 1941 to Byron Claypool of Cape Girardeau, Vera spent the war years in Topeka, Kansas, Salt Lake City, Denver and Seattle, where she worked in a ship-building yard. The end of the war found her working in a radar-parts plant in Cape Girardeau.

The marriage to Claypool resulted in the birth of two sons and a daughter, but ended in divorce. Re-married in 1966 to Charles D. Speake of McLean, Virginia, she was widowed in March 1973.

After a long, commendable career teaching classes from primary to university levels in Missouri, Illinois, California and Virginia, and after her husband’s death, Vera retired and moved back to Chaffee for a few years. She then moved to Paso Robles, California, for several years to be nearer to her grandchildren, later moving back to Virginia near her daughter.

A graduate with a master of arts from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, she held memberships in Delta Kappa Gamma and Beta Zeta Lambda societies. She also was active in the Methodist women groups wherever she lived and was past president of the Paso Robles PEO Sisterhood Chapter, a philanthropic organization dedicated to providing international educational opportunities for women.

She commented often she had been lucky to have grown up in the time and place she did. And, despite living in many parts of the country, she always described herself as “a Chaffee girl.”

Vera is survived by her children, son Joe “Jake” Claypool of North Hills, California, daughter Sharon Hall of Williamsburg and son Byron Claypool of Riverside, California; and their families, including 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Her children and several grandchildren will be in attendance at a memorial service at 10 a.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church in Chaffee. Burial will be private.

Arrangements are courtesy of Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel.