Claire Ann Kirkpatrick Balcom, 67, Staff Nurse

Born on December 17, 1933 in Cleveland, OH, she resided in Baltimore, MD, Wausau, WI, and Chattanooga, TN before moving to Lorain in 1975. She graduated from Bennett High School in Buffalo, NY in 1951 and the College of St. Scholastica, Department of Nursing in Duluth, MN in 1955. She worked as a staff nurse and assistant head nurse at the University of Minnesota Hospital and later as a staff nurse at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD.

In Lorain, she was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, the Lakeland Women's Club, where she was a past president from 1997-1998, the Colony Club, and Sorosis, where she was also a past president. She was also a member of a professional nursing honor society. She enjoyed traveling, sewing, music, reading, growing flowers and plants and community service.

Surviving is her husband of 45 years: Paul C. Balcom; son: Steven Balcom of Center Barnstead, New Hampshire; 2 daughters: Pamela Balcom Oberg of North Olmsted and Karen Hatfield of Mentor-On-The-Lake, OH; and 2 grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her father: Edward Welch Kirkpatrick; her mother: Lillie (nee Clendenin); and a brother: William Kirkpatrick.

The family will receive friends on Wednesday, July 11, 2001 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. in the Dovin Funeral Home, 2701 Elyria Avenue, Lorain. The family will also receive friends on Thursday, July 12, 2001 from 10:00 a.m. until time of services at 10:30 a.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 7th and Reid Avenue, Lorain. Rev. Nancy Roth, assisting priest at Christ Church, Oberlin, will officiate at the Solomn Holy Eucharist Service. Burial will follow in Ridge Hill Memorial Park, Amherst Township.