Helen Claggett Funkhouser

Mrs. Funkhouser died Sunday, Feb. 2, 2003, at Baldwin Care Center. She donated her body to Kansas University Medical Center.

She was born March 30, 1903, in Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of Dr. Wilson G. and Elsa-Mae (Kneisley) Claggett.

She graduated from Steel High School in 1923 and attended Ohio State University and Carnegie Institute of Technology Drama Department in Pittsburgh. She moved in 1961 to California and in 1986 to Tonganoxie.

Mrs. Funkhouser was a concert singer and voice teacher, and she was a reporter for the Manchester Union Leader. She was president of New Hampshire Roadside Improvement Assn. and of New Hampshire Federation of garden clubs from 1946 to 1948. In 1952 she was elected to the New Hampshire Legislature.

She was elected in 1963 to Las Virgenes Resource Conservation District in California and was later president. She served 14 years on the Las Angeles Citizens Planning Council. She was president of Malen Corp. and ran House of Star. She taught at California Lutheran University and received the Pearl Buck National Award from Kappa Delta Alumnae Assn.

She was a member of P.E.O., National Order of Women Legislators and First Congregational Church of Tonganoxie. She was a life member of National Council State Garden Clubs, American Forestry, Save the Redwood League, Las Virgenes Historical Society and Tonganoxie Historical Society. She wrote “Autobiography,” published in 1991.

She married James Alexander Funkhouser on Aug. 14, 1925, in Dayton. He died March 4, 1994.

Survivors include a son, James Claggett Funkhouser, Baldwin; a daughter, Elsa-Mae Jensen, Cincinnati; two grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Quisenberry Funeral Home, Tonganoxie, is in charge of arrangements.