Services for Claire Wetherell set for Monday, Nov. 15

Claire Wetherell, one of the most important women in the history of Mountain Home, died peacefully in the early morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 7, at the age of 91.

Rose Claire Hart Wetherell passed away at a Boise care center following complications due to a recent stroke.

Rosary will be held Sunday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Mountain Home. Funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 15, at Our Lady of Good Counsel. Burial with military honors will follow at Mountain View Cemetery.

Arrangements are through Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel, in Mountain Home.

A complete story on her remarkable life will be carried in this week's edition of the Mountain Home News.

A South Dakota native, she was born on Feb. 18, 1919.

She completed her nursing training at the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

With her degree in hand, she went on to serve her country as a U.S. Navy nurse during World War II and it was during that time that she met her future husband, Robert Miles Wetherell, while stationed in Bremerton, Wash.

Following World War II, she moved in 1946 to her husband's home town of Mountain Home, a community that she embraced as her own and which soon came to love her as well. Her influence on the community was so great, through her energy, willingness to tackle any job, and her grace, friendliness and sense of humor, that she became known as the "Matriarch of Mountain Home."

She worked initially as a nurse in the community, including several years as the area's primary healthcare provider following the departure of the town's only doctor.

She was instrumental in the passage of a bond that led to the 1955 construction of the Elmore County Hospital (now Elmore Medical Center), where she continued her work as a nurse. She also helped found and served for two years as president of the hospital auxiliary, which honored her with its lifetime achievement award in 2006.

A driving force behind construction of the hospital, it was only the first of the major impacts she had on the local community.

During her early years in Mountain Home, she also was the director of the USO here, and later spent 16 years on the Idaho Veterans Affairs Commission, including four years as its chairperson.

She served on numerous boards, commissions and as a member of a lengthy list of civic groups.

She was the first woman to serve as president of the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce and she helped establish the Business and Professional Women's group in Mountain Home.

Twice she served series of terms on the Mountain Home Public Library Board of Trustees, and was instrumental in helping pass the bonds that created the new library in 1976 and the remodeling of the library in 2004.

Wetherell was active in politics much of her life.

She became the first woman to serve on the Mountain Home City Council, a post she maintained for eight years, including serving as the first female president of the council.

A lifelong Democrat, during her years of leadership at both the state and local level Elmore County often voted Democratic. She was vice chair of the state Democratic party from 1962-72.

She served in the Idaho State Senate for 12 years (beginning in 1983) including service on the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee and where her late husband, Bob Wetherell, had also served (1951-52, 1955-64).

She was honored in 2010 with a rare special resolution and recognition by the state senate, which "extend(ed) to her the appreciation and gratitude of the Senate for her service to the State of Idaho, and, in particular, her service to Idaho's veterans and the legislative branch of our state government."

Claire continuously advocated for parks for Mountain Home and in 2006 she was honored with a park named for her and given a lifetime key to the city.

She was a devoted Catholic and was named the Idaho Catholic Woman of the Year in 1989. A member of the Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Mountain Home, she served two terms as president of the Altar Society. She also was a member of the Legion of Mary.

In a life filled with public highlights, behind it all she was devoted to her family. She raised four children, including her son, Dennis, and daughter Ellen, who both died prematurely of cancer.

Her surviving children include her son, Michael E. Wetherell, who is the Administrative District Judge for the Fourth Judicial District, and Robert T. Wetherell, who has been an attorney in private practice in the city of Boise since 1982. Part of her family included Jill Wetherell, wife of her late son, Dennis.

In recent years, the woman known for her vibrant energy began to slow down as her health started to fail. Her children eventually moved her to a nursing home in Boise where she was living at the time of her death.