Clara Rita (Meier) Guynn, 100, of Anamosa, formerly of La Porte City, her farm outside Mount Auburn,Eagle Center, and Luxemburg, IA, died Thursday, April 18, 2024, after a long, full life. She was born July 1, 1923, in Luxemburg, IA, daughter of John and Rosalia (Brunsman) Meier.

Clara experienced the power of prayer when, during the Great Depression, her dad was upset and en route to Chicago when her mom said: let's pray the Rosary, and he turned around and came home. As a child, she once lit the straw bales around the farmhouse on fire trying to flush out an animal, and the stove pipe upstairs once set the girls' bedroom mattress on fire.

She attended St. Mary's of Mt. Carmel Catholic School in Eagle Center and much later achieved her GED in her 60's. Clara married Roy Richard Guynn on January 2, 1957, at St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Eagle center. Together they farmed SW, and then NW of Vinton all their lives. They had dairy cattle, hogs, chickens, and some beef cattle. They grew corn, soybeans, oats, and hay. Clara milked the cows at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. 365 days a year with a radio on in the barn. After chores she cooked breakfast and supper, with dinner in the middle, at noon. She had a huge garden on the farm and did lots of canning and freezing. Clara raised chickens and every spring she would pick up the baby chicks with the car and put them in the brooder house. She gathered eggs and butchered the chickens herself. She also fixed fence, drove tractor, sorted hogs, and did the farm books, working very hard her whole life.

She loved her children. An angel food cake was baked from scratch for every birthday, clothes were ordered from JCPenney and Sears catalogs before every school year, and she took them to Mass and taught them about the importance of God, church, and faith. Sundays after church there was always fried chicken in the electric skillet, mashed potatoes, and sweet corn from the freezer, with Polka Party on the radio. Roy and Clara sometimes went to dances on Saturday evenings to dance polkas and waltzes.

In her later years, Clara rode her exercise bike, prayed the Rosary, and drank a glass of prune juice every day. She used Word Search puzzle books all the time. She shared her Watkins salve with anyone and everyone. She should have been a rep for that company! She was very social and loved to talk and joke with everyone she met.

Clara was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in La Porte City and formerly St. Mary's Church in Vinton. She was very devout in her faith. It was the central focus of her entire life. Clara is survived by her daughter, Rosetta (Rosie) (Steve) Hannen of Central City; her son, Louis Guynn of Mount Auburn; granddaughters: Allison (John) O'Grady, Lindsey (Karl) Ungs, and step-grandchildren:Sondra Cue and Jacob Guynn; several great-grandchildren; and a sister, Ann Bussmann of Spring Valley, MN.

She lost her husband, Roy, in 1981, her daughter, Jane, in 1999, and her grandson, David, in 2014. She was also preceded by her three brothers: Victor, Othmar, and Edward Meier; and two sisters, Agnes Youngblut and Marie Rottinghaus.

Words of wisdom from Clara:

If you give God an hour on Sunday, he will give your soul the rest of the week.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his own soul.

If it hurts, put some Watkins salve on it.

Leave a bar of soap in your bed for leg cramps.

Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.