Clarice Ross of Perry will turn 106 years old this Saturday, March 17, and her friends and former coworkers among Perry’s ranks of retired school teachers are asking the community to help shower Clarice with birthday greetings.
“This year is number 106,” said Sue Leslie of Perry, a former colleague of Clarice, “and the retired teachers are urging everyone who knows her — and anyone who doesn’t — to send Clarice a birthday card in hopes that we can get 106 cards to her by her birthday on March 17.”
Clarice resides at the Rowley Masonic Community. Her mailing address is P.O. Box 578, Perry, IA 50220.
Clarice taught third grade in the Perry public school system for many years. Her teaching career began in 1932. She was fresh out of school and landed an $80-a-month job teaching second grade in the Woodward school system.
She said it was her lucky break because many of her friends teaching in rural township schools were earning as little as $40 a month. The U.S. was in the depth of the Great Depression at that time.
Clarice’s path has not always been smooth or easy. Her father died of a burst appendix on the day she was born in 1912, and she lost her mother to tuberculosis when she was only 5. Clarice was raised by an aunt and uncle on a farm south of Ogden.
She survived these early shocks and graduated from Ogden High School in 1930. She still speaks with pleasure of her many friends and acquaintances from her teaching days in Perry.
“Let’s make this birthday one that Clarice will always remember,” Leslie said.
