Claude Winter

Jean-Michel Winter and Marie Jarre Winter gave birth to Claude at Premery, a village in central France. She was two months premature, and the doctors didn’t expect her to survive. She proved them wrong by 91 years. Her childhood with two older brothers toughened her, as did living in Paris under German occupation--they had a turnip-rich diet. After the war, the family relocated to the piney dunes south of Bordeaux, where she was educated by nuns. Two younger sisters joined the family there. Claude trained as a nurse in Paris, and there she met and married a young architect, Yves Colomb. They moved south to Provence, to raise chickens and rabbits. Son Eric and daughter Emanuelle were born there. Then they returned to Paris, to live on a houseboat on the Seine river. Sons Petrus and Francois were born there. In the 1960’s south France called them back: they bought “la Corconne,” a campground in the rugged Cevennes mountains, where they lived in primitive conditions--no electricity, no telephone, mountain stream water. Claude worked as a nurse while husband Yves rebuilt the ruined stone house and prepared the campground to receive summer visitors from all over Europe. In the winter of 1976 a vagabond American, Lee Welch, stopped by la Corconne in search of a cartoonist friend who was also living there. Claude was only semi-separated from her husband, so their mutual attraction was suppressed until a shared traumatic experience--the failed rescue of a drowning horse--burst the emotional dam. Claude and Lee lived for three idyllic years in a huge stone house by a waterfall. They installed several apartments in the building, eventually living themselves in the gigantic attic overlooking an apple orchard. Claude became an adept traveller: they explored Italy and Corsica together, and then , at age 47, Claude embarked on her first airplane: to the U.S.A. to meet Lee’s family. For two years they lived intermittently on either side of the Atlantic, until she settled on Corvallis, Oregon as her home and English as her new language. They married in 1981, and she became a U.S. citizen five years later. Her daughter Emanuelle and youngest son Francois joined them in Corvallis. Claude worked in the back office of her mother-in-law’s travel agency. But she found the time and energy to explore several crafts: weaving, silk painting, basketry, ceramic painting, jewelry-making, and egg decoration, and to sell them at Saturday market. She also enjoyed travel opportunities in Asia, Mexico, South and Central America, and the Caribbean islands. She was a steadfast member of a synchronized swimming team. In the last ten years of her life, Claude suffered a progressive debilitation from Parkinsons disease, taking away her mobility, her creativity, and finally, her life. The flowers that she planted will always bloom around her home on Fillmore Avenue. She is survived by her husbands Yves Colomb and Lee Welch, her sons Eric and Francois, daughter Emanuelle, brother Joel, sisters Eliane and Sylvie, four grandchildren and many nephews, nieces, cousins near and distant. Celebration of her life will be Friday May 31, 3:30 to 5:30pm, at Franklin Park, corner of 16th and Polk in Corvallis.

Claude Winter

December 28, 1932 - March 26, 2024