FORTH WORTH, Texas—Velma Lois Thach Climenhaga was born Oct. 4, 1918 in Harvey County, Kansas to Charles Randolph Thach and Anna Mary Vollweider Thach. She was the third of eight children, and the last survivor.
Velma graduated from high school in Burrton in 1936. She married Everett Daniel Pitts on Nov. 4, 1936 in Wichita and they had two children, Stephen Everett Pitts and Teresa Eileen (Terri) Pitts. Everett worked for various oil companies and the family lived in most of the oil producing states in the U.S., as well as Vera Cruz, Mexico and Bogota, Colombia.
Velma and Everett were divorced in 1961, and she moved to San Antonio, Texas. Velma started taking college courses at San Antonio College while she was working for the U.S. Air Force at Randolph Air Force Base. She transferred to Arlington, Virginia in 1965, and she became a computer programmer in the early days of computers, working for the U.S. Navy, Army and Air Force in Washington, D.C.
She continued with college classes and graduated from George Washington University in 1977 at the age of 59.
She married Earl Richard Climenhaga on Aug. 30, 1968. They were married until Earl's death, Nov. 14, 2006. Earl had three children, Doreen, Bill and Dick, and eight grandchildren, and Velma had a daughter Terri (her son died early) and two grandchildren, and they were all considered as one big family.
Velma worked in Washington D.C. until she retired from the U.S. Civil Service in 1983. She worked for the Air Force as a contract consultant for a few years after her retirement, and volunteered at the public TV station, WETA in Arlington, Virginia. She treated this like a full-time job, and was rewarded by being nominated and selected as the TV National Volunteer of the year in 2005.
Later she moved to Fort Worth, Texas to be near her daughter, and lived at the Silverado Memory Care facility for the last four years of her life.
Velma was preceded in death by her son Stephen E. Pitts, her husband Earl R. Climenhaga and her stepdaughter Doreen Climenhaga Kelly. She is survived by her daughter Terri Pitts Ellis and husband Luke Ellis of Ft. Worth, granddaughter Sara Ellis Ware of Chicago, Illinoise, grandson Grant Ellis of San Antonio, Texas, stepsons Bill Climennhaga and Dick Climenhaga of Falls Church, Virginia, 10 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
