By Nina Hendricks
Members of the Sarah Maples Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) are honored to have as their newest member Claire Stout. She is a history buff and has been working for several years to get her ancestor into the Sarah Maples Chapter. She was sworn in by Chaplain Priscilla Berry and Regent Helen Preston.
Claire was born in the West Texas town of Monohans, but moved to El Paso when she was 5 years old and it was here as a young woman she met and married her husband Glen Stout who was in the military at the time. After moving to her husband’s hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Claire finished her education at Kirkwood Community College.
Glen and Claire have four children, Tim, Todd, Ted, and Elizabeth, they are also the proud grandparents of two girls and four boys. All the Stout children beat her back to Texas but she made it as soon as she could.
Claire is the backbone of the Tri-County Library in Mabank. As Library Director for the last 17 years at Tri-County she is the glue that holds it all together and makes the library a friendly and homey place that makes people want to come back.
Claire was presented the prestigious award of “Women in American History” at the Texas State DAR Conference in 2010.
She insists that volunteers are who keep the library going and she just fills in whenever she is needed. She loves that so many community clubs and families use the library for meetings and celebrations and whatever she can do to get people to the library she will do. She speaks highly of the interlibrary loan program where if the Tri-County doesn’t have the book you want, she can get it for you from other libraries for the cost of postage.
The Sarah Maples Chapter of DAR is proud that his gracious lady has become one of our members and we welcome her to our folds.