Clair Newton, Jr.

Clair Newton Jr., age 80, passed away on August, 19, 2017 at the Minnesota Veterans Home, Silver Bay. He was surrounded by loving family and caretakers he called friends.

Clair was born at the family home in Jenkins, MN, on September 22, 1936, to parents Edna and Clair Newton, Sr. (both deceased). He was the sixth born of ten siblings, survived by his sister Linda (Wayne) Headlee.

Clair graduated from Pine River High School in 1954. He then served his country in the U.S. Army overseas in Japan, keeping the peace. When he returned to the states he attended Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then started a successful business, Newton Painting, which would be his career. He married Donna Jean Newton (deceased) on August 10, 1963. Together they raised surviving children, Lisa (Bruce) Compton, Julie (Craig) Luchsinger, Tim (Deb) Hoke and Pamela Niessen.

Clair and his wife raised their family in Isanti, Minnesota where Clair enjoyed raising horses on the family farm. He enjoyed friendships with neighbors and members of the Spencer Brook United Methodist Church.

Clair loved deer hunting in Minnesota and big game hunting out west and in British Columbia with lifelong friends. Fishing was a passion he especially loved sharing with his kids and his 7 grandchildren and 9 great-children, the lights of his life. Until the last weeks of his life Clair was catching lakers and salmon on Lake Superior with his son-in-law Craig, he loved returning home to tell stories of their fishing adventures. The staff at the Veterans Home was an extended family to Clair, who gave him exceptional care and friendship in his two years of residency.
He was always telling stories and putting smiles on faces of staff, residents and guests when he lived there.

The family asks that in place of flowers, donations are sent to the Minnesota Veterans Home, Silver Bay. A visitation will be held on September 2, 2017 at 1 p.m. at Kline Funeral Home in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. The memorial service, led by Pastor Paula Gaboury, will begin at 2 p.m., with the procession to the Pequot Lakes City Cemetery to follow. The family invites guests to return to Kline Funeral Home after for a luncheon.