Jessie “Ollie” Clausen died in a nursing home in Fortuna where she had been living with her husband of 63 years, former Congressman Don Clausen. She was born Jessie Oleva Piper in 1918 in Mansfield, Washington.
After high school, she moved with her family to Crescent City where she became a waitress at the Hi-Ho ice cream parlor. It was there that she was introduced to then- U.S.Navy pilot Don Clausen, who had just returned from World War II.
The couple married in 1949 and raised two daughters.
Her husband would go on to become a Del Norte County supervisor before serving in Congress from 1963 to 1983. They lived in suburban Washington, D.C., while Don was in office and settled in the Santa Rosa area afterward.
The couple had been living in Fortuna when Ollie Clausen suffered a fall, was hospitalized in Eureka and died soon after. She also is survived by daughters Dawn Marie Baumbartner of Ferndale and Bev Mendenhall of Kenne, Texas.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
Leave a comment