CLAIRE LOVELL

If there’s one thing longtime Seaside resident Claire Lovell is known for it’s her clever and sharp tongue. But being quick-witted, as she says, is “better than being half.”

Lovell, 93, also is known as an established columnist of the Seaside Signal, a venue through which she has shared that wit, as well as thoughts on Seaside and life in general, for about 25 years.

Her extensive knowledge of the city is not fabricated. Except for five years spent in Jeffers Garden from 1951 to 1956, Lovell has lived her whole life in Seaside. She was born in the city in 1920 to a mother from Arkansas and a father from Pennsylvania, Charles and Myrtle Ruthrauff.

Lovell was the youngest of nine children, although one of her brothers, Paul, died in infancy and she did not know him. The oldest sibling, Blanche, was 18 years her senior and had a knack for helping play the part of mother to Lovell and her two brothers and four other sisters: Ernest, better known as Rudy; Grace; Alta Mae; Vera; Thomas; and Betty.

The sister closest in age to Lovell was three years older and the two were “sort of adversaries,” she said. It wasn’t until she grew up that she truly came to appreciate her siblings, who all have died.

Lovell’s father, who fought in the Spanish-American War, died from a disease when she was 2 months old, forcing Rudy, 15 at the time, to leave school to work sweeping out railroad cars at the depot to bring in money for the family.

Lovell’s mother focused entirely on keeping up the house and caring for her kids.

“That was a full-time job,” Lovell said, adding it was uncommon for women to hold jobs outside the home anyway, and there were few if any devices to make housework easy. They had to haul water in even to use their electric Maytag washer.

Her childhood was filled with hard work and responsibility. All were expected to help with chores around the house, such as gathering wood and tending to the garden — the family’s main source of food.

“A lot of our time in a big family was work,” she said.

Lovell’s first job was doing housework for a family from whom her mother bought wood in a sort of exchange system. She was 12 or 13 at the time.

When the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit, her mother lost the savings in her bank account, but Lovell does not remember their lifestyle changing all too much.

“We didn’t have anything to begin with,” she said.

Life was not all hardship and work, though. Several of Lovell’s sisters could play instruments, and she remembers the family surrounding the piano and singing songs. And they had play times, which mostly centered on using their imaginations and handmade toys and producing their own entertainment.

“Every day I thank God that I was raised during the Depression so that I have a real sense of perspective and a truly small want list,” Lovell wrote in her memoir, “Where the Heart Is,” published in 2009.

Lovell went to Seaside’s Central School as an elementary student and later Seaside High School. After graduation, she attended St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing to get a three-year diploma. From there, she went to work as a nurse.

During World War II, she belonged to the American Red Cross, for which she signed a paper promising to go to the war front if needed. She never was drafted to work overseas, but there was plenty to do on American soil, especially with the Tongue Point Naval Base nearby, she said.

Lovell did not have a natural affinity for nursing but rather saw it as a practical career choice since she had a small amount of money and couldn’t afford to go to a four-year college.

She worked at St. Mary’s Hospital for a stint and then for a private doctor for about 10 years.

Lovell has four children: three from her first marriage and one from her second marriage. She was married four times. Her children are: Robin Derringer, 69; Gary Hill, 67; Jeff Hill, 63; and Lauren McMichaels, 57.

As the children grew up and Lovell continued to work, it was a challenge for her to spend so much time away from them. However, it also was a necessity.

“I was always the breadwinner in my family,” she said.

Lovell’s final full-time job was working from the early 1970s to 1988 as an administrator at a senior assisted living facility. At the center, Lovell said, she was “a kind of one-man band,” handling bookkeeping, taking care of upkeep around the facility and finding time to give pedicures and style hair for the elderly patrons.

She enjoyed the constant hard work, but her personal life suffered because of it, she admitted. She did not have time to give a lot of instruction to her children, and they were required to learn from watching instead of teaching.

“It’s a wonder my boys turned out all right,” she said.

A strong work ethic was a trait she acquired from her mother, the person by whom Lovell said she has been most inspired. In her memoir, Lovell described her mother, who died in 1975, as a “tough, remarkable lady whose genes helped me to persevere.” Myrtle Ruthrauff was a woman who never had anything and worked hard for the little she did have, Lovell said.

Even now, it is difficult for Lovell to ask for help with something, but she sees a value in being able to do things for oneself.

Because of the length of time she has spent in Seaside, Lovell has become a sort of trademark of the city. She prefers it that way, since she likes consistency and never has been one to strike out and try something new.

“When I was working, I liked to kind of be in a rut so I could know what I was doing,” she said.

In 1970, Lovell moved back to the house on Lincoln Street where she was raised. She renovated the house, adding new wallpaper and layers of paint. She would like to continue working on it, but her health has made it difficult.

“You need legs to do things,” she said.

Some of Lovell’s pastimes include watching movies, reading and going to events in Astoria with her friends. She also used to love to dance and sing, two activities she cannot do anymore.

She learned to ballroom dance in her 30s and she went straight to work compensating for years of being a wallflower because she doesn’t like to try something until she already knows how to do it.

“I tried to make up for lost time,” she said.

She also used to enjoy singing. Until five years ago, she sang in a choir at Seaside United Methodist Church, which she has attended for more than 75 years. Now she has resigned herself to singing in the shower, she said.

Although one of her husbands — the one whose last name she kept because she thought it sounded best — enjoying hunting and fishing, Lovell never could get into those activities.

“I don’t like killing things,” she said, adding that she opts for scooping up spiders and putting them outside as opposed to crushing them. She’s even given up clamming.

In addition to working as a columnist for the Seaside Signal since 1989, Lovell authored “Where the Heart Is,” and she now is working on a book of poems. Many of the ones she has compiled so far are those written throughout her life, starting with a piece about a turkey from when she was only 8 or 9. Most of the poems carry romantic themes, and all are structured by strict meter and rhyme schemes.

Lovell’s many decades spent in the area gave her the insight to pen “Where the Heart Is,” which covers the history of Seaside and Lovell’s experience of growing up and living in a coastal town.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to say that I couldn’t put in a column,” she said.

A lot has changed in the city over the years, and it has become very “up-town,” according to Lovell. In an effort to attract tourists, fun activities have been exchanged for an excess of retail shops and restaurants, she said.

“There used to be more to do downtown other than eat and buy T-shirts,” she said.

Lovell talked of days when there were two movie theaters, a bowling alley, a swimming pool, a shooting gallery, a penny arcade and a dance hall downtown.

“I just remember the old days,” she said. “… I really think they were more fun.”

While things in Seaside may have sped up, life for Lovell has slowed with time and the changes it brings.

“Nostalgia is a big chunk of my life now,” she said.