Cameron County Texas Archives Obituaries.....Clore, Margaret Jean Phipps December 15, 2005
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Valley Morning Star on Dec. 18, 2005
Jean Phipps McKelvey Clore
HARLINGEN - Jean Phipps McKelvey Clore, 88 died December 15, 2005 at her home in 
Harlingen, Texas. She was born in Sullivan Co., MO., to Paul Earl Phipps and Susan
Case 
Phipps in 1917. Following her grandmather's death in the terrible 1918 flu
epidemics, and 
doctors telling the family that the grandfather could not live through another
brutal 
Missouri winter, Phipps, superintendent of schools in Princeton, MO., applied at the

University of Missouri for a job in the hottest, sunniest part of the country. The
extended 
family settled in McAllen in the summer of 1918.
     In 1920, the family moved to Harlingen where Phipps had been elected school 
superintedent. Her tenure until her resignation in 1932 coincided with the town's
first 
business and population growth. A school building program consisting of two high
schools, 
two junior highs, and two additional elementary schools was necessary. Also
adjoining 
school districts were taken into HISD.
Jean graduated from Brownsville Junior College, the University of Texas, and
attended 
summer schools at George Peabody College, Nashville. She was the society editor for
The 
Daily Sun in Goose Creak for a year until the death of her father when she returned
to 
Harlingen to work for F.L. Flynn at the Rio Grande Building and Loan Association.
That 
opened the idea of construction, and she and her aunts built houses and apartments
to 
provide homes for families of incoming airmen at the new military airbase.
After marriage to Charles M. McKelvey in 1942, she camp followed until he went
overseas 
with the Tenth Mountain Division. When he was killed in action in the Alps in March,

1945, Jean became a reporter for the Valley Morning Star and then worked as a
secretary 
for John Van Cronkite's public relations firm. In 1948, she and Walter L. Clore were

married; her time in the next few years was taken up with raising children. Suddenly

there were four to be in college at the same time, so then she taught reading and
english 
at Coakley Junior High School for eight years.
Jean was a member of the First United Methodist Church, updated and compiled the 
Church's history for the years 1960-1985, and wrote condensations of history for the

Church's pictorial issues; belonged to the Tip-O-Tex Genealogical Society and
published its 
bulletin for four years; as a member of the Cameron County Historical Commision
wrote 
successful applications for Texas Historical Markers honoring the Levi Snavely home
and 
Dishman School, was a member of the Harlingen Museum Board, the DAR, Colonial 
Dames XVII, and Chapter T, PEO.
Jean was preceded in death by her parents, Aunts Mattie and Jennie Case, Great Uncle

Carter Shannon McKee, Step-Mother Dorris Snavely Phipps, husbands Capt. Charles 
McKelvey and Capt. Walter Clore, sister Marijo Phipps Gibson, and daughter Laurie 
Phipps Clore Smith.
She is survived by her sons John Walker McKelvey II(Judy), Walter Paul Clore
(Marilyn), 
Michael Geoffrey Clore(Debbie), and son-in-law Lamar Smith; nine grnadchildren, 
Cameron Clore McKelvey (Jessica), Case McKelvey Pyle (Gerald); Walter Earl Clore
(Lisa) 
and Kenneth Paul Clore; Geoffrey Michael Clore and Natalie Clore; and Walker Dane 
Smith (Kara), Aaron Lyle Smith (Maggie) and Graham Lee Smith; brother-in-law David 
Mason Clore (Marjorie), four great grandchildren, Laurel and Landon McKelvey, Parker

Smith and Bethany Pyle, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Graveside services only will be held Monday, December 19, 2005, 2 p.m. at Mont Meta

Memorial Park with Rev. Steve Purdy officiating. For those desiring to do so
memorial 
donations may be made to the First United Methodist Church, the Alzheimer's 
Foundation, or any school organization.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Buck Ashcraft Funeral Home. 
Published in Valley Morning Star on Dec. 18, 2005
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