Claudeen Wert
Aurora, CO — Claudeen Wert, 50-year Aurora resident and Altura Elementary School secretary for 20 years, died Jan. 17, 2018, after a long illness. Services were held Jan. 27 at Parkview Congregational Church.
Claudeen (Virginia Claudeen) and her late husband Roland (Ron) are survived by four children, Sandra Nicholls (Kirk) and Brian Wert of Aurora; Bob Wert (Socorro) of Paris, France; and Sharon van Thullenar (Jeff) of Roeland Park, Kansas. They were proud grandparents of Natalie and Ben Nicholls, Gregory and David Wert, and Clay, Abigail and Derek van Thullenar.
Claudeen was born in Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1936, oldest of seven children of Robert and Inez Fillerup White. She spent early childhood in Minneapolis, Minn. After graduating from Durango (Colo.) High School, she attended the University of Colorado. Claudeen and Ron met while working on Pike’s Peak, married in Michigan, and after several moves settled in Aurora.
Claudeen worked for Aurora Public Schools many years, including as Hinkley High library assistant and Altura Elementary secretary. Her impact showed through many notes she received at retirement: “Thank you for taking me home so I didn’t walk in the cold, thank you for helping me when I was scared on the first day, thank you for waiting with me while my mom was late, thank you for the lunch money so I could eat, thank you for letting me call my mom to bring me my homework.”
Claudeen was thankful and thrifty, known for her great love for her grandchildren, her fine sewing of prom dresses, her delightful letters home, her love of reading, gardening, travel, and nature, and her desire to learn Spanish. She was, her husband said, “an angel with a sense of humor.”
Also surviving are sisters Laura McLane of Seattle and Vennie Eline White of Albuquerque, and brother Lane White of Denver; a special nephew, Ramon McLane, and her late brother Vernon’s children, Kristen, Eva, and Brett. She was predeceased by her parents, Inez Fillerup White and John Robert (Bob) White, and brothers Vernon, Joe and Scott White.
Contributions in Claudeen’s memory may be made to Altura Elementary School or Parkview Congregational Church, Aurora.