Lelah R. Pautsky Clementson, 101, left her earthly body and joined Jesus in paradise on Thursday November 16, 2023.

Visitation will be at Lunn's Colonial Funeral Home in Wichita Falls, Texas, on November 29th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. A public graveside service will be held on Thursday, November 30th at 2:45 pm in Riverside Cemetery in Wichita Falls, Texas, under the direction of Lunn's Colonial Funeral Home.

Lelah was born February 18, 1922 in, Wichita Falls, Texas, to John Alvie Pautsky and Sallie Bell Cobb Pautsky. Her siblings were Allen William, Leona Pauline, Helen Louise, Norman Everett, Flem Noel, John Alvie Jr., Dixon Johnsie aka DJ, Jack, Clinton Wayne, Loyd Neal, and Weldon Ray.  Her family struggled to survive through the difficult and sparse years of the great depression of 1930's and the tragic drowning death of Clinton Wayne, age 6 and DJ, age 3 in September 1932. The family moved from Charlie, Texas, in January of 1933 and eventually left Texas in 1939  headed to the farm lands of Arkansas where Lelah attended school and  played high school volleyball. Her crowning athletic achievement occurred when with her delicate touch she served a perfect game and delivered her team a victory. She graduated high school in Decatur, Arkansas, in 1940, and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, to attend business college. After graduation, she worked as a collector, stenographer and bookkeeper for Fletcher Coffee & Spice Co. in Little Rock until September of 1944 when she headed to Hawaii under a civil service contract.

Her own words describe an encounter that would change those plans and her life forever. While in Spokane, Washington, for training before her Hawaii deployment, eating lunch "My girlfriend pointed him out, don't you think he is good looking she asked? Well not particularly, he's English and probably so conceited we couldn't get along."  A few days later in the PX, this English gentleman and Lelah both leaned on the counter waiting for their orders. "He could hardly hold his eyes open and as I looked at his unshaven face, tired, droopy and interesting eyes I couldn't help but smile and that was all he needed. Mind if I eat my burger with you? he asked. No, let's get this booth, Lelah pointed. Lunch led to dinner and dancing and after the third evening they knew their lives had changed and on the sixth day Lelah and Clem announced their engagement. She married Harry "Clem" Clementson two weeks after they met on December 2, 1944. Clem left this earth on December 26, 2009 after 65 years of marriage, but he never left her heart, her thoughts or her dreams.

Lelah and Clem served their country, Clem in US Air Force as a 20-year career airplane mechanic and then A/P instructor. Lelah as his "gentle woman who gives instead of taking, my dreams come true at last". She loved and cared for Clem and they began a life of adventure in the icy lands of Alaska and then on to other bases across the US. They retired in 1957 and bought a home in Coos Bay, Oregon, where they walked the beaches, fished the streams, camped and hunted for food and eventually built a log cabin from trees they cut and scraped together.

Lelah and Clem cherished art as well and they used the flint, driftwood, stones, and arrowheads they gathered and the pictures they took to create works of art that adorned their home and life. Lelah painted beautiful oil, pastels and watercolors and loved making ceramics. She also enjoyed collecting from magazines to help Clem create his masterful collages. Then they moved to Logandale Nevada. Lelah and Clem created beautiful gardens of vegetables, fruits and flowers wherever they lived and spent hours tending them together. They also loved bridge and were members of "The American Contract Bridge League Inc" and devoted much to honing their skills and competing in tournaments across the country.

Lelah and Clem moved back to Texas to be near family. The hours spent laughing, eating, playing bridge, dominoes and spades are memories forever cherished.

Lelah and Clem were members of weekly contract games also. When Clem and Noel were gone and the time came to sell her home and move into a community living environment, bridge was the factor that dictated where she would live. Weekly bridge games with the ladies kept her challenged and happy.  She also continued to school the family in dominoes till the end.

Lelah was preceded in death by her father, mother, siblings, and Clem. Her kindness, generosity and love are her legacy and we cherish the example she provided to the many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews and future generations she left behind. Donations in her honor can be made to Alzheimer's research.