Clara "Clare" May Braukmann, 91, a resident of the Verboort community, passed away on Sunday, December 7, 2014, at the Providence St Vincent Medical Center in Portland.

Recitation of the Holy Rosary will take place at 10:30 a.m. on December 19 at Visitation Catholic Church; 4239 NW Visitation Rd in Verboort. Funeral Mass will follow.

After mass, Clare will be buried at Visitation Catholic Cemetery in Verboort.

Family and friends are invited to attend a reception in the parish hall, following the burial.

Clare was born on July 25, 1923, in Forest Grove, OR. She was the youngest of three children born to John and Theodora (Vandervelden) Heesacker. She was raised on the family farm in Verboort and graduated from Verboort High School in 1942.

She met her future husband, Bernard “Ben” Braukmann through mutual friends. Following a short courtship, they were married on November 11, 1942. They made their first home on Evers Rd in Verboort, then rented a farm for six years from Clare's uncle Ben Heesacker. They moved to Clare’s parents' farm in 1949. Ben passed away in 1985 and Clare continued to live independently at the farm.

She was a devoted and loving mother to her six children. Clare was a farm homemaker, helping with the chores on their dairy/beef farm, bringing in crops and keeping the family garden and orchard. Clare enjoyed providing for her family by growing and canning everything they needed. She was an excellent cook and candy maker, although she would never admit it. The holidays were special to her, especially Christmas, when she showered her family with love.

Clare was proud of her Catholic community and she volunteered at the Altar Society, and at the annual dinner for which she baked hundreds of pies and worked in the pantry. She enjoyed quilting and shopping with her best friends and cousins, Genny Vanderzanden land Maggie Kindel, sewing, dancing and listening to many kinds of music, especially Vienna Waltzes. She loved playing canasta and pinochle. She enjoyed car trips, and clam digging at Netarts Bay. She loved puppies, and always doted on her happy dogs.

She is preceded in death by her loving husband, Ben, a son, John “Jack”, her parents, and two siblings, Robert Heesacker and Margaret Jansen, and a great grandson Caleb.

She is survived by her five children and their spouses; Jim Braukmann and Carla Nuxoll of Spokane, WA, Jane Arthur Gaston of Kent, WA, Patricia and John King of Huntington Beach, CA, Bill and Liz Braukmann of Verboort, OR, Bob and Susie Braukmann of Portland, OR, ten grandchildren, Mark, Jack, and Ben Arthur, Katherine and Michelle King, Nick, Brianna, and Ben Braukmann, Aurora and Rory McCann, and four great grandchildren, Abraham, Adeline, Samuel, and Arden, as well as many nieces and nephews.

The family suggests donations in Clare’s name be made to Visitation Parish in Verboort