Quotes

Thomas Wolfe, Jonas Salk, Others

Photo Credits

Everyone but me got photos. 10 rolls of film I shot and not one of them came out. Whine. Whimper. So I have depended on others for all the pictures on this site: Dean & Lorraine Clopton, Matt Diaz & Rebecca Shore, Nancy Diaz, Lily Levine. Thank you for sharing.

Jonas Salk

Give us Roots but also give us wings.
Good parents give their children Roots and Wings…
Roots to know where home is,
Wings to fly away and exercise what’s been taught them.

Thomas Wolfe

Near the beginning of his book You Can't Go Home Again, Wolfe wrote:

"He thought of all his years away from home, the years of wandering in many lands and cities. He remembered how many times he had thought of home with such intensity of passion that he could close his eyes and see the scheme of every street, and every house upon each street, and the faces of the people, as well as recall the countless things that they had said and the densely-woven fabric of all their histories...But why had he always felt so strongly the magnetic pull of home, why had he thought so much about it and remembered it with such blazing accuracy, if it did not matter, and if this little town, and the immortal hills around it, was not the only home he had on earth! He did not know. All that he knew was that the years flow by like water, and that one day men come home again."

Near the end of the book, when his character has lived and grown and experienced so much, Wolfe wrote: " ...At the end of it he knew, and with the knowledge came the definite sense of new direction toward which he had long been groping, that the dark ancestral cave, the womb from which mankind emerged into the light, forever pulls one back--but that you can't go home again...back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

Unknown

"Organizing this bunch is like trying to wrangle cats."

Unknown

"You are who you are because you were who you were when."

Caveat From LRH

If there are any factual inaccuracies in this web site, please set me straight. If you do not wish an existing picture or story to appear on this site, let me know, and I will consider removing it. If you have pictures or stories you would like me to add to the site send them to me.

A Brief History of the Clopton Clan

Dean and Lorraine grew up in the community of Springview, Nebraska—friends through high school and graduating together in 1943. Lorraine taught one year in a one-room schoolhouse located northwest of Springview. Dean enlisted March 18, 1944, in the Army Air Force, and after basic training in Amarillo TX, was sent to radio school at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was there they were married on Aug. 12, 1944. They lived there briefly while Dean was in school and Lorraine worked at available jobs. Dean was re-located to Arizona, and Lorraine went back to Springview and worked for the OPA. Dean was discharged on Dec. 12, 1945, and returned to Springview to help his family at the dairy farm.

In June 1946, they moved to Casper, Wyoming, where Dean started to work for JC Penney. Lorraine worked for Montgomery Ward. On Dec. 12, 1947, their daughter, Nancy, was born at the Natrona County Hospital in Casper.

In October 1949, Dean went to New York City to further his art and design education. Lorraine and Nancy stayed with the Grandparents Clopton in Springview until March 1950, when they, too, went to NYC.

Dean went back with JC Penney in NYC, and continued his education with the Workshop School of Advertising and Art, courtesy of the US GI Ed Plan. He made JCP his career and retired at age 60 on May 1, 1985.
On April 2, 1953, their second daughter, Susan Marie, was born in the Parsons Hospital in Flushing, New York.
The family had been living on Long Island, New York, and June 1956, bought a home in Dumont NJ, where Nancy and Susan received their elementary and high school education.

In June 1974, Dean and Lorraine sold their home in New Jersey and moved to a New York City apartment on Sutton Place. In 1981 they moved to an apartment on 88th and Madison. In January 1982, they also purchased a country house 100 miles north of NYC, near Pine Plains, New York-- a location form many excellent holiday family gatherings until they sold the house in 19??.

Meanwhile, they continue to enjoy traveling, both here and abroad. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in August 2004 with a cruise of the Baltic Sea and a visit to surrounding countries. This year they plan to take their daughters with them on a tour of Ireland.

Lorraine Radden and Dean H. Clopton Wed

In the Chapel at the Sioux Falls Air Field on Saturday, August 12th, Miss Lorraine Radden, youngest daughter of Mrs. Caroline Hollingsworth, became the bride of Pvt. Dean H. Clopton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Clopton, Springview.

The candle-lighted ceremony was performed at 7:30 by Chaplain Carl Lindstrom in the presence of a group of immediate relatives of the couple. The double ring ceremony was used.

The couple entered the Chapel room to special music played by an army friend of the bridegroom. Attendants of the couple were Pvt. and Mrs. Max Lambert of Sioux Falls.

Miss Radden wore a dress of Cadet blue with black and white accessories and a corsage of white gardenias.
Following the ceremony the wedding party was served lunch at the Sioux Falls Chocolate Shop. At midnight Mr. and Mrs. Lambert entertained the party to refreshments which included a wedding cake baked by Mrs. Lambert.

The bride and groom were graduated from the Keya Paha county high school with the class of 1943. Mrs. Clopton taught one year in the rural schools. Early this summer she went to Sioux Falls where she has employment in a war plant.

Pvt. Clopton enlisted in the Army Air Corps in March. He received his first training at Amarillo, Texas, and two months ago was assigned to radio and code school at Sioux Falls.

Pvt. and Mrs. Clopton are living at 415 Dakota Ave.

Attending the ceremony from Springview were Mrs. Ray Clopton and David, Mrs. Caroline Hollingsworth, Mrs. Lee Ross and Glenda and Mrs. Nettie Weise.