Dolores Elaine Clemmensen

Dolores Elaine Clemmensen, the daughter of Jens and Carrie Jensen Bruun was born November 1, 1929, in Audubon County, Iowa and died peacefully in her home in Audubon, Iowa on October 26, 2013, at the age of 83 years, 11 months, and 25 days. Dolores grew up with her brothers and sisters Bernice, Norma, Jens “Jim”, and Glenn. She was baptized and confirmed at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Audubon, Iowa. She attended rural school for a few years before moving into Audubon and attending the Audubon Community Schools graduating with the High School Class of 1948. While Dolores was in High School she started dating Milo Clemmensen. When they would go on dates Dolores would eat grilled cheese sandwiches because she wanted to be an inexpensive date. After graduating she worked for ABC Loan Company for several years. On July 17, 1949, she was united in marriage to Milo Clemmensen at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Audubon. Four children: Ross, Rex, Sheri, and Kirk were born to this union. Dolores was very proud of her children and they are enormously proud of her. Dolores was a homemaker until the children were in school. In 1966, she served as the Deputy Auditor and then Deputy Treasurer for Audubon County until she retired in 1991. The family of Loyd and Margaret Lewis was very close to Dolores’s and Milo’s family. Margaret was her best friend. The two families shared many vacations together at Lake Okoboji. Her cousin Elizabeth Schmidt recalls Dolores teaching her how to dance. Dolores’s kindness and integrity cannot be overstated. When making Easter baskets, she made sure that each basket contained not only the same number of jelly beans, but the same number of each color. She made sure the three-legged family dog, Suzy, had her ears pinned back with a clothes pin before eating ice cream. Christmas was always a special time full of love. One neighbor, Melba Dudgeon, commented “you have not seen Christmas until you have seen a Clemmensen Christmas.” Dolores had a strong sense of justice and fairness. She supported equality for all regardless of race, gender, or sexual preference long before the rest of the country caught on. In her later years, Dolores enjoyed going to the hospital gym to exercise with her sister Norma. Dolores was a member of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Audubon. She was quite skilled at playing cards including Bridge and Gin Rummy. She and Milo played Gin Rummy at the kitchen table for years and Dolores was usually ahead. She was smart as a whip and very funny. While everyone else was complaining that VCR’s were just too complicated, she was a whiz at such things. In short, Dolores lived a life filled with class, integrity, decency, and love. She will be greatly missed. Preceding her in death were her parents; her sisters: Norma and husband Paul Worster; Bernice and husband Eldon Adams; and her brother Glenn Bruun Survivors include her husband Milo Clemmensen of Audubon, Iowa; her children Ross Clemmensen of Sun City, Arizona; Rex Clemmensen and Sheri Clemmensen both of Iowa City, Iowa; Kirk Clemmensen of La Jolla, California; her brother Jens and wife Phyllis Bruun of Council Bluffs, Iowa; her sisters-in-law: Darlene Schrader of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Betty Clemmensen of Audubon; Nadine and husband Jerry Heiken of Florida; nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.

Cemetery:
Interment will be in the Arlington Heights Cemetery in Audubon, Iowa.



Visitation:
The family will meet with friends Wednesday evening from 5:30 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. at the Kessler Funeral Home in Audubon.

Service:
Funeral services will be Thursday, October 31, 2013, at 10:30 A.M. at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Audubon, Iowa.