Cleta Mae Haverkamp passed away on December 8, 2020.

Cleta Mae was born April 12, 1933 to Lawrence & Cora Hammes. She grew up on a farm outside of Baileyville, KS the oldest daughter of 11 brothers & sisters. She was the first member of her family to graduate from high school and was only allowed by her parents to continue her education beyond 8th grade by promising to do all of the family’s laundry early in the morning before she left for school. Cleta Mae was captain of the basketball team at Baileyville High School playing point guard even though her height was only 5 foot 2 inches tall and was her class valedictorian.

After her high school graduation in 1951, Cleta Mae moved to Topeka, KS and initially worked for Hallmark Cards and eventually worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

On July 22, 1953, Cleta Mae married the love of her life, Remi Haverkamp, at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, KS. Cleta & Remi had started dating her senior year of high school after meeting at a dance in Marysville, KS. After their wedding, Cleta & Remi moved to a farm outside of Centralia, KS and started their life together. Remi was soon drafted into the Korean War and left for basic training with the army in April 1954 just one month before their first child was born. Remi was eventually stationed at Fort Gordon in Georgia where he worked as a clerk in the headquarters of the Military Police Training Center and Cleta Mae joined him with their baby daughter, Brenda. They lived in Augusta, Georgia for the next two years while Remi finished his military duties. Then in 1956, they returned to their farm in Centralia, KS where they lived most of their lives and went on to have 5 more children. Cleta loved to bake and in her early years made beautiful wedding cakes for many weddings in the community. She was also a gifted seamstress and was the sewing leader for the local 4-H club for many years. Always resourceful, during some tough financial years, Cleta, with the help of some of her children, became a successful AKC Lhasa Apso dog breeder, from 1966 through the mid 1980’s. In July 1973, Cleta & Remi bought the grocery store in Centralia, KS which they ran for many years until selling the store to their son, Steve, in 2002. Cleta had a natural penchant for numbers and did all of the bookkeeping for the farm, the dog breeding business and the grocery store, often aided by one or two of her children.

Cleta Mae & Remi were life-long members of St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, KS and Cleta was a member of the Altar Society as well as the VFW Auxiliary. In their later years, Cleta & Remi enjoyed traveling to Yuma, AZ as snowbirds in the winter months. In 2014, they moved to Seneca, KS where they bought a house on the golf course.

Cleta truly had a love for family and was very devoted to not only her children but also her brothers & sisters, aunts & uncles as well as their families throughout her life. When her mother became ill later in life, Cleta Mae assumed many of the motherly roles of raising her younger brothers & sisters. This motherly role was repeated throughout Cleta’s life with many examples ranging from taking in her young niece to live with her family for a year, to providing her elderly aunts with regular haircuts and permanents. Cleta was always loving, caring and kind to everyone.

Cleta is survived by her husband, Remi and her children: Brenda Haverkamp of Topeka, KS, Randy Haverkamp (Cyrilla) of Loveland, CO, Steve Haverkamp (Deb) of Seneca, KS, Joyce Haverkamp of Brooklyn, NY, Janel Chilson (Mark) of Overland Park, KS and Stacy Lehmen (Jim) of Atoka, TN; 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Cleta is also survived by six brothers, Alvin, Gerald, Galen, Leo and Kenneth, all of Seneca, KS and Larry of Topeka, KS; and three sisters, Bernice Heiman of Baileyville, KS, Mary Rose Feuerborn of Richmond, KS and Jeanette Becker of Seneca. Cleta was preceded in death by her father Lawrence on November 30, 1993, her mother Cora on July 15, 1975; her brother, Donald Hammes on November 21, 1967, and her sister, Dorothy Bergman Schraad on January 19, 2017.

Cleta will lie in state at Lauer Funeral Home in Seneca on Thursday, December 10, 2020. The family will not be present and masks will be required.