Clara Hopkins

Clara Florence (Howard) Hopkins, age 83, died June 8, 2020 at the Veterans Nursing Home in St. Cloud, MN. A memorial service will be held 10:30 AM, Friday, June 19, 2020 at Brenny Family Funeral Chapel in Staples, MN. Interment will be held at 12:00 PM, at Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Little Falls, MN.

Clara was born August 5, 1936 in Urbana, IL to James and Leah Mae (Maudlin) Howard. She moved to Plummer, MN in March 1946 and graduated from Pershing High School in Plummer in 1955. She then joined the Navy as a medical corpsman. After discharge from the Navy, she married Dean Clyde Hopkins and made her home where he was stationed during his military service. She continued to work in various nursing homes and VA hospitals as a nursing aide. She loved to sew and read. Clara and Dean were living in Georgia at the time of her husband’s death. She moved to Staples, MN in 2007 and resided at the senior hi-rise until she entered the VA nursing home in St. Cloud, MN in November 2018.

Clara is survived by one daughter, Barbara (Co) TenBroek of Edgewood, MD; 4 grandchildren; 4 great grandchildren; 1 brother, Roger (Barbara) Howard of Staples, MN; 2 sisters, Ruth (Virgil) Kuntz of Bismarck, ND and Shirley (Maynard) Peters of Thief River Falls, MN; and several nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her husband; parents; and brother, Floyd Howard.