Claire Harbison

Claire Marie Harbison, age 92, died peacefully November 9, 2017 at the Silver Tree Nursing Home in Schertz, Texas. She was born, July 31, 1925 in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only child of Vera Chiorano (nee Toperzer) and Eugene "Dooley" Chiorano. Claire was born in the upstairs bedroom of the house on Terrace Street where she lived for the first twenty-one years of her life. Tragically her father was killed in a weekend car racing accident when she was only three months old, with her bronzed baby shoes hanging from the dashboard. Her mother, grandmother, and four maternal uncles, who all filled the roles of her surrogate fathers, raised her. Claire inherited her love of dogs from her grandmother and her youngest uncle; together they secretly raised puppies in the cellar and hid them from her mother who was terrified of dogs. Whenever a puppy was discovered, it was removed from the household, only to be replaced by another later!

Claire met her girlfriend Ruth at age eleven; they remained best friends for over eighty years, despite attending different schools, practicing different religions, and seeing each other rarely during childhood. She graduated from Roxborough High School in 1943 and after World War II she moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. At a dinner dance she met William R. "Bill" Harbison, an Army Air Corps pilot who recently returned from wartime flying duties in the Far East. They were both excellent dancers which was a lifelong passion they pursued often. Claire and Bill married in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bills home town, on September 28, 1946 and lived there for several years until Bill re-entered the Air Force active duty. Their marriage thrived amid numerous transfers from one military assignment to another, from Morocco to Hawaii, and many bases in between. Interestingly, they never lived on a military base, choosing to live in the local civilian community, even in Casablanca (Morocco)! During those years all three of their children were born: Richard W. "Rick" in 1949, Ronald A. "Ron" in 1952, and Kim L. in 1956. Bill remained in active duty until 1973, and then retired in Hawaii, later moving to Las Vegas to be nearer to several of their children and their families. They remained in Las Vegas until Bill's death in 2010. She then moved to Hudson, Wisconsin where she lived with her daughter Kim for over seven years.

During her many years as a dedicated military wife, Claire raised her three children, sometimes as a single parent when Bill's military duties carried him far away. In their retirement years, Claire and Bill traveled widely, visiting family and friends, and seeing many parts of the world together, whether by air or cruise ship. Throughout, they both enjoyed dressing up for evenings of fine dining and ballroom dancing. She also enjoyed singing; one of her favorite songs was the 1969 Fifth Dimension's "Wedding Bell Blues," and its well-known refrain: "Marry me Bill!" Her other interests included swimming, water skiing, and bowling, all activities that kept her involved with her family and friends. Claire suffered a stroke in the summer of 2017, living in assisted care in and around Hudson, and later to a nursing home near her son Rick, in Texas. At the time of her death, Claire was survived by her children: son, Rick and his wife Doris Lundberg, son Ron and his wife Gigi, and her daughter Kim; her four grandchildren: Kim Lundberg and her husband Karl Tigges and their son, Courtland Tigges; Ron S. Harbison and his wife, Shon Shon, and their children, Hanna and Henley; Maile and husband Daniel Gowhari, and Cole Goddard and his wife Jessica.

Subsequently to Claire's passing, the family now also mourns the death of her son, Ron, who passed on May 2, 2018. According to her wishes, Claire's ashes are to be buried at her husband Bill's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, on September 13, 2018.

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