Dr Norman & Ada Mae Clough
Ada Mae was born in 1911 in Henrietta, Missouri, shortly after the Woodruff family moved there from Kansas City. She and her two brothers spent their childhood on the farm. Ada Mae trekked three miles to school and graduated in 1930 as valedictorian of her Henrietta High School class. Her two brothers also achieved this honor.
After graduation, Ada Mae stayed home for two years. When her younger brother graduated high school, her father sent them both to college. Ada Mae attended Northwest Missouri State College, which then cost $125 a year for tuition, book rental and expenses. Ada Mae studied to become a teacher, majoring in home economics with a minor in English. During the summer between her junior and senior years, she met her future husband, Norman.
Ada Mae taught in Gravity, Iowa and Thayer, Iowa and then decided to return to school at the University of Missouri. She majored in Dietetics and earned a degree in vocational home economics. On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1941, Ada Mae Woodruff married Norman Clough. That happy event was followed by a May graduation. The couple then moved to Lee's Summit where Norm taught vocational agriculture.
In 1942, Norman joined the Coast Guard. During the next few years the couple crisscrossed the country. Ada Mae took on a variety of jobs, moving from drilling aluminum cabin parts for the Boeing B-17 to being second in command in the dietetics department of a large hospital.
After the war, Norman decided to enter optometry school in Chicago on the GI bill. Ada Mae worked for Lyons and Carnahan Educational Publishers, where she was in charge of the collections department. After Norm's graduation in 1949, they returned to Lexington, Missouri, to be near family.
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