Marlene Shields Clawson

Marlene Shields Clawson passed away April 11, 2016, at her daughter’s home in Fieldbrook, California at the age of 84. She was born in Tooele, Utah, Sept. 21, 1931, to Vernon Woods Shields and Alice Lucille Rushton. Marlene graduated from Tooele High School in 1949 and attended the University of Utah for two years. Marlene married LaVere Edwin Clawson in Logan, Utah, Oct. 10, 1952. Together, they raised seven children. Six of them were raised on a farm in Hyrum, Utah. In 1961, the family moved to American Samoa. It was here she had her seventh child. Due to Marlene’s health problems, she and her family moved back to Utah in 1963. LaVere accepted a job at Humboldt State in 1967 and the family moved to Arcata, California. Marlene and LaVere divorced in 1971 and Marlene moved back to Utah with five of her seven children and built a home in West Jordan, Utah. In 1976, she built another home and moved back to her home town in Tooele, Utah, near her favorite childhood playground, Little Mountain. In 2010, she moved to Fieldbrook, California to live with her daughter due to health issues. She began her career working as an executive secretary for the Military ROTC at the University of Utah. She worked there for 21 1/2 years from 1971 to 1993 and retired in September 1993. During retirement Marlene traveled to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada. She enjoyed many camping trips and outings with her kids and grandkids. Marlene had an adventurous spirit and loved to explore old ghost towns and travel down dirt roads just to see where they went. While working for the Military ROTC, she went on river trips down the Colorado and Green Rivers, and rapelled down a University of Utah building. She was fond of gardening, camping, hiking, painting, writing and reading, and spent much of her last five years writing family histories. She was a devoted mother and grandmother and was dearly loved by all her family and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Alice and Vernon Shields; her sister Loya Beck and her son Randy Clawson. Her sweet spirit will be dearly missed by her surviving children: Cathy (Rob) Coffman, Fieldbrook, California; Craig (Charlotte) Clawson, Fieldbrook, California; Keith Clawson, Provo, Utah; Kelly Clawson, Tooele, Utah; Kristine Clawson, Tooele, Utah; Colleen Clawson, Tooele, Utah; her sister Verna Cowdell, Tooele, Utah; and grandchildren Jamie Rockwell, Cody Coffman, Caitlin Clawson, Christopher Clawson, Jennifer Loudon, Joshua Holfeltz, James Pyne and Shantae Nelson and great-grandchildren Alyssa Bates, Breanna Bates, Mortikai Loudon and Aaron Nelson. A celebration of her life will be held in Tooele, Utah at Tate Mortuary, May 7, 2016, at 3 p.m. Friends and family are invited to a gathering at her former home in Tooele from 5-7 p.m.