RIP Erma June Claussen-Meitzler-Lamb 1932-2016

I apologize for not blogging for the last couple weeks. I’ve been distracted by personal and family issues and haven’t gotten to it. My sister passed away yesterday, Sunday, October 2, 2016. She passed on Rosh Hashanna – the Jewish new year. She was 84 years old. She’s been suffering for the last year with Myasthenia gravis. Then she fell and broke a femur a couple weeks ago, leading to her death. I needed to make a business trip anyway, so my brother, Steve, and I packed up and visited her, as well as my nieces, Roberta and Virginia, in Colorado. Although she was in pain, I was able to get a chuckle out of her about something during one of the visits. A good memory…

Erma was my big sister, 18 years my elder, and the middle-child in my mom’s “first” family. The only time I actually lived in our home with her was while her husband was serving one of his tours as a U.S. Army medic in Vietnam. She, along with her kids, Royce, Brenda and Virginia, were with us in Orting for about a year as I remember it… She was my sister, and I loved her.

I just finished writing her obituary, which we are planning to run in the newspaper in Roswell, New Mexico – the last place where she and her husband, Duane Lamb, owned a home. Following is her obit.

The picture is of Erma and I – she was 19 and I was 1 1/2 years – taken on the driveway of the Theodore and Virginia Meitzler place between Orting and South Prairie, Washington.

Erma June Lamb – 1932-2016

Erma June Lamb (84) passed into the loving arms of her Savior October 2, 2016 at Fort Collins, Colorado. She was born July 13, 1932 in Canon City, Fremont County, Colorado, the daughter of Maynard H Claussen and Virginia Frances Feller. After moving with her family to Albany, Oregon, she lost her father to Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1938 when she was but 5 years old. Her mother remarried to Theodore C Meitzler on the first of January, 1941, and she used the surname Meitzler until she wed. Her name was initially spelled Irma, but soon gave way to the more common spelling of Erma.

Erma attended Southern Missionary University (now Southern Adventist University) in Collegedale, Tennessee, and at the age of 21 married the love of her life, Duane Eugene (Burnett) Lamb on May 13, 1954. Duane was first in the U.S. Navy, then attended SMU where he met Erma and later entered the U.S. Army. Trained as a medic, he served 2 tours in Vietnam. Having a husband in the service meant that the family moved a lot. Over the years they lived in Columbia, South Carolina: Fort Benning, Georgia; North Carolina; San Antonio, and El Paso, Texas; Wildflecken, Germany; Schofield Barracks Army Base in Oahu, Hawaii; Albuquerque, and Roswell, New Mexico; Payson, Arizona; Moab, Utah, as well as Aurora and Loveland, Colorado.

Erma graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado Women’s College in Denver and spent many years of her life as an elementary school teacher. She will be sorely missed by all those who knew and loved her.

Erma is survived by two brothers, Stephen Kenneth (Judy) and Leland Keith Meitzler (Patty) of Orting, Washington; and five children; Royce Dee Lamb (Diane) of Florissant, Colorado; Brenda Lue Drummonds (Randy) of Phoenix, New Mexico; Virginia Grace Waldrop of Roxie, Mississippi; Roberta Jean Lesser (Ronald) of Fort Collins, Colorado, and April Gibson (Eric) of North Glen, Colorado, nine grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.