Clara Eleanor (Bishop) Ziemer

Clara Eleanor Ziemer, 88 of Overland Park, KS, passed away Saturday, January 11, 2014.

She was born to Bertie and Maggie (King) Bishop in Greenville, SC as the fourth of six children.  Clara attended Parker High School and soon after graduation became a telephone switchboard operator.  Her brother, Bill (William) was dating a girl from Ohio and she asked her brother if there were any handsome boys in the family.  Her brother Bill introduced her to Richard Ziemer and they began a long distance relationship.  On September 7, 1946 they were married.  Richard passed away on February 8, 2013.

She had her first child Judy Lynn Ziemer on May 28, 1948.  She took on the role of the wife of a traveling preacher and they went all over the area around Dayton, TN ministering in a number of churches.  She had her second child Richard D Ziemer, Jr “Dickie” on February 16, 1951.  They moved back to Greenville, SC and Richard began a prison ministry in the chain gang camps there.  During one of their trips to the Anderson Chain Gang Camp on the fateful Sunday morning of September 21, 1958, they were hit head on by a young driver who lost control of his mother’s stolen car and put Richard, Clara and Judy in the hospital with life threatening injuries and killed their 7 ½ year old son Dickie.  After recovery the doctors told Clara that she would never be able to have another child.  Richard and Clara wanted another child.  God provided and Tim, their son was born on August 19, 1961.

Richard and Clara moved to Kansas City in 1965 where they lived the rest of their lives.  Clara worked as a cook at Calvary Bible College for 25 years and was a faithful minister’s wife in prison ministry for 35 years.  She took seriously the role of wife and mother trying to provide a wholesome environment at home for her two children and husband.  She kept an ultra clean house and put meals on the table for the family to eat even while holding down a job. 

Clara was also preceded in death by her sisters Vincie and Syble and brothers Gerald and William “Bill”.

She is survived by her children, Judy Cooper and husband Roger, Timothy Ziemer and wife Angela; grandchildren, Nathan Myers and wife Selena and Jennifer Myers; great-grandchildren, Lucas and McKenna Myers; sister Inez Mantooth; sister-in-law Rosalie Bishop; other relatives and many friends.  She will be greatly missed but we will all be reunited in Heaven again one day. 

Funeral Service:  11:00 a.m. Thursday, January 16^th at Olathe Bible Church, Olathe, KS with visitation from 10:00-11:00 a.m. prior to the service.

Burial: 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Leavenworth National Cemetery

Arrangements Hixson-Klein Funeral Home, Gower