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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Centenarian

Sears (The Spokesman-Review)

Clara (Zurbrugg) Sears

Spokane

Clara (Zurbrugg) Sears celebrated her 105th birthday Jan. 9. She was born Jan. 9, 1904, in Latty, Ohio. Her family moved to Stevens County near Colville shortly after her birth, where they established the Fruit Hill Ranch.

Sears graduated from Colville High School in 1921 and moved to Chewelah, Wash.

She met Clarence Sears, while working at the creamery in Chewelah. They married Jan. 1, 1923. He died in 1969.

While her husband worked as post master in Coulee Dam, and Mason City, Wash., for many years, Sears worked at the creamer in Coulee Dam, and later at the post office until her husband’s retirement in 1963.

In 1964, they moved to Palm Springs, Calif., where Sears lived until moving back to Spokane in 2007. She traveled all over the country with her husband before his death. After her husband died. Sears traveled around the world including to China, Africa, Australia, Greenland and South America.

She credits her long and healthy life to her father’s advice, “everything in moderation.”

Sears has four children: Pauline Crowther, Salt Lake City; Neal Sears, Chewelah; Richard Sears, Alameda, Calif.; and the late Lois Klein, Almira, Wash. She has 12 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and 32 great-great-grandchildren.