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Clarence Walter Osborn, 101 years old, of Lincoln, a loving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfather, son, brother, and friend to all,
passed away and entered into eternal rest on April 5, 2019. Born to Effie and Walter Osborn on January 23rd, 1918, in a covered wagon in Martin, South Dakota bound for Hat Creek Wyoming where the family homesteaded until 1927 when they moved back to a farm near Staplehurst, Nebraska.
Clarence served in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) near Denton, Nebraska and he worked on dairy farms and the railroad in the 1930s. He enlisted...
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Clarence Walter Osborn, 101 years old, of Lincoln, a loving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfather, son, brother, and friend to all,
passed away and entered into eternal rest on April 5, 2019. Born to Effie and Walter Osborn on January 23rd, 1918, in a covered wagon in Martin, South Dakota bound for Hat Creek Wyoming where the family homesteaded until 1927 when they moved back to a farm near Staplehurst, Nebraska.
Clarence served in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) near Denton, Nebraska and he worked on dairy farms and the railroad in the 1930s. He enlisted in the United States Army in January 1941 where he achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant and served with distinction in the European region during World War II. He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star with Cluster, a Purple Heart, and five battle stars (Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes Rhineland (Battle of the Bulge), and Central Europe. He received Badges for Rifle Marksmanship, Pistol Sharpshooter, Bayonet expert, and Combat Infantry.
Clarence married Betty Hunt on January 21, 1949 and they were married for 70 years and raised two children. Clarence retired from Outboard Marine (formerly Cushman Motor Works) in 1982 after 37 years of employment. Clarence and Betty enjoyed walking, bicycling, hiking, camping, and traveling across the United States, and participating in patriotic, athletic, and parade events representing military, senior citizens, and active and healthy lifestyles. Clarence was a member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he was awarded a Quilt of Valor from the Veteran’s Auxiliary and a Veteran’s brick at Lincoln’s Veteran’s Garden in Antelope Park.
During his retirement, Clarence enjoyed meeting and making new friends and he was recognized for his volunteer contributions in the community, including the Senior Center, Life Lines, Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln General Hospital, and the previously listed athletic events. He joined the Lincoln Track Club and he ran and competed in numerous running events (e.g. the Cornhusker State Games, Local and National Senior Games, full and half marathons (e.g. Lincoln, Omaha, Richfield, Pikes Peak), 10k (e.g. Buffalo, Bolder Boulder), and other running races. He participated in the Tabitha Miles for Meals Run on March 30, 2019. Clarence was honored with the Nebraska Governor’s Healthy Lifestyle Award, received many medals and awards for his running achievements, and carried the torch at the Cornhusker State Games. Some of Clarence’s favorite hymns are “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”, “Jesus Loves Me”, and “Amazing Grace” which he learned as a young boy. He often recited the Lord’s Prayer and during WWII, he carried a Bible that was given to him by his mother.
Clarence is survived by his wife Betty and his two children – Viola Caddell (Ralph) of Milford, Nebraska and John Osborn (Cindy) of Longmont, Colorado. He is also survived by his five grandchildren (Cathy Radke (Greg) of Seward; Ralph Caddell of Lincoln; Duane Caddell of Fairbury; Tracy Deba (Jamie) of Longmont, Colorado; and Brian Osborn (Sarah) of Aurora, Colorado) and eleven great grandchildren (Micaella Johnson (Earik) of Fremont; Stephanie Sell (Brice) of Hastings; Vicki Radke of Seward; Andrew, Alexia, Brielle, and Ashlynn Deba of Longmont, Colorado; and Evan, Natalie, Colin, and Blake Osborn of Aurora, Colorado) and one great great grandchild (Emma Johnson). Clarence was preceded in death by his infant daughter (Vicki), parents, six sisters, three brothers, and his son-in-law Ralph.
Clarence will be buried in the Seward Cemetery, Seward, Nebraska on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. Family and friends may gather at the cemetery prior to the services. lieu of flowers, family requests memorials in his name be sent to the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Lincoln Track Club, or Tabitha Health Care Services.
Source - Trump Funeral Services, Lincoln, NE
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Cindy Lange-Kubick: Running toward 100, Lincoln's oldest runner hits a century
CINDY LANGE-KUBICK Column / Lincoln Journal Star January 23, 2018
The marathon runner appears in the hallway, his feet moving fast in wheelchair-propelling tennis shoes.
It’s a snowy Monday morning, the eve of his big day, and Clarence Osborn is wearing a T-shirt with his photo on the front.
He's younger in the picture -- only 98! -- and his face is rounder.
Clarence is stuck in this chair with a healing hip, fractured in November. He ran his last Lincoln half-marathon in 2008.
They made a category just for him: 90 and above.
He won with a time of 4:08:15 and has the medal to prove it.
“Clarence loved his medals,” said Nancy Sutton, director of the Lincoln Marathon. “For Clarence to do what he did at such an advanced age, he inspired a lot of people.”
Let's talk about inspiring.
The marathon man took up running after he retired from Cushman Motors, where he built and repaired scooters. (And motored his own around town for decades.)
He’s run 30 marathons in all since he turned 65.
He ran up Pikes Peak and down again. He ran in 10Ks and 5Ks and half-marathons. The Bolder Boulder. The Buffalo Run. The Twin Cities Marathon.
He carried the torch at the Cornhusker State Games.
He ran while his sweetie, Betty, rode her bicycle. The two of them traveled the country in a 1969 Chevy van, racing and sightseeing and living.
When he couldn't run anymore, he rode his three-wheeled bike through his West A neighborhood, picking up cans and making friends of strangers.
Clarence can't hear too well any more and right now he can't walk.
But he has Betty his bride of 69 years, who he met in Bristol, England, during the war. He has his son John in Colorado and his daughter Viola close by in Milford and their spouses and five grandkids and 11 greats.
And everyone who could make it came to his early birthday party here at Tabitha Sunday.
“He’s pretty amazing,” John says. “He’s a funny guy. He’s a hard worker.”
John pulls up a video on his phone, his dad in running shorts making his way around Lincoln with a TV crew.
The runner is telling his story, how he got hooked on staying fit, how as long as he had two good knees he planned to keep going, how he liked to win. (He says that twice, just so we’re clear.)
But there’s more to Clarence than his quest for fitness.
There’s Clarence the farm boy -- the fifth of 10 children -- born in a covered wagon on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota as his parents made their way from Nebraska to Wyoming to homestead.
Clarence the hired hand, milking dairy cows and husking corn in Minnesota.
Clarence the soldier, saving an officer, hit by shrapnel, cheered in the streets of France when the war finally ended.
Clarence the father and grandfather and husband. A man who smiles and cries on the eve of his 100th birthday, telling me his story at Tabitha’s Good House, where he and Betty have lived for more than two years -- a bird feeder outside their window, a magnifying computer screen so he can read the paper cover to cover every day.
Today, the room is covered in birthday greetings and banners, old photos and the quilt Betty made from her husband's many running shirts.
I hold a book in my lap, Clarence’s life story told in his words and a lifetime of photos. Clarence with his country school classmates after his family returned to Staplehurst from Wyoming. Clarence in the cavalry aboard his horse Pooky.
Clarence wearing silk shorts during his Army boxing career. Clarence and his medals: Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart.
“I’m very proud of those Army medals,” he says.
Clarence and Betty and their babies. "Our first children were born Feb. 9, 1952,” he wrote. “They were twin girls. We named them Viola and Vicki. Vicki did not survive …”
Clarence hunting with his brother Roy, posed beside a row of raccoon pelts. Clarence and Betty beaming next to a shiny Cushman motor scooter. “I rode it every day, even in winter.”
The happy couple beside the turquoise van that took them on adventures during their retirement. “My mom could out-walk anyone,” John says. “They just never stopped moving.”
Clarence in a hospital gown in a scene from the movie “Terms of Endearment.” (Blink and you’ll miss him.)
Clarence on the cover of the Cornhusker State Games program. Clarence and Bob Hope on the stage of the Senior Olympics in St. Louis in 1987.
Clarence at 72, modeling for art classes at UNL, muscles rippling.
And Clarence in real time, listening as I shout questions his direction, both of us tilting our heads, occasionally puzzled by the other.
He tells me war stories, his face filling with emotion. “The officer wrote me a note, ‘Clarence, if it wasn’t for you, I would have been left there to die.’”
He points to his right ear. “Where I got hit by shrapnel.”
He tells me about his younger brother who didn’t make it home. “His name was Glenn.”
He talks about his first road race. “I ran my first marathon and, by golly, I finished it. And I was hooked.”
He ponders the secret to a long life. “Well, I had plenty of exercise.”
Clarence could talk all day, but four great-grandchildren are waiting with a beach ball to play catch with a marathon man role model about to turn 100.
His son propels the wheelchair into the visitors’ room, full of people who love Clarence.
“He said as long as he makes it until tomorrow he’s happy,” John says. “But we want to keep him for many, many years.”
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Lincoln marathon runner, inspiration to others, dies at 101; 'If Clarence could do it, I could, too'
By Alli Davis / Omaha World-Herald, April 11, 2019
Ann Ringlein was nervous before her very first marathon in Lincoln in 1984. When she picked up her packet and bib before the race that morning, one smiling face sent all those nerves flying away.
It was the face of Clarence Osborn, who was in his mid-60s at the time. Ringlein, who is now the manager of the Lincoln Running Co., had seen Osborn before at other races, just not at the volunteer table.
He was “the old guy” who ran in them, always wanting to win. The World War II veteran started running when he was 64 years old.
“Everybody knew who Clarence was,” Ringlein said.
Osborn, of Lincoln, died April 5, one week after his very last race — Tabitha’s Miles for Meals Run at Holmes Lake Park. He was 101 years old.
Born in a covered wagon as his family made its way to their homestead in Wyoming, Osborn never really stopped moving. He served in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941. He came back with some medals — the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, five battle stars and the Purple Heart.
He met Betty Hunt in 1949, and they had two kids — Viola and John. Clarence and Betty loved to exercise, and they were regularly seen cycling around their neighborhood near West A Street in Lincoln. They also walked, hiked, camped and traveled across the United States, especially when Osborn had a race.
Osborn competed in the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon at least 10 times. The Boulder Bolder 10K, also in Colorado. The Buffalo Run in Lincoln. The Cornhusker State Games. Full and half marathons in Lincoln and Omaha. Sometimes, he’d start early with groups of other older runners, but he always finished.
“Dad started to win medals, and he liked it,” daughter Viola Caddell said.
At first, the oldest runners ran in the 70+ age group. Osborn later badgered Nancy Sutton, the Lincoln Marathon race director, to increase the age categories as he got older.
“Clarence would call, and we would chuckle at marathon meetings, but it was the right thing to do,” Sutton said. “If somebody that age is gonna come up and run, by God, they’re gonna get a medal.”
And he loved his medals, Sutton said. He would wear them the next week at social events, telling his running stories to anyone who would listen. Or, he’d pass on a medal to an awe-struck little kid.
“He loved to collect them, but it was more important to pass that joy onto somebody else,” Caddell said. “That’s why he loved to give those things away.”
Even when Osborn couldn’t run, he would volunteer with his wife at the races, handing out packets, cookies and encouragement.
Sutton plans to arrange a memorial award in Osborn’s honor for the oldest finisher in the Lincoln Marathon and call it the Clarence Osborn Endurance Award.
“So many people posted (on Facebook) that Clarence was their inspiration,” Sutton said. “They thought, ‘If Clarence could do it, I could, too.’”
A graveside memorial service was held for Osborn on Tuesday in Seward. The family requests memorial donations to be sent to the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Lincoln, the Lincoln Track Club or Tabitha Health Care Services. |
