Claude Roosevelt Nielsen's Obituary
Claude Roosevelt Nielsen, 89, died peacefully at his daughter’s home in Tucson, AZ, on May 26, 2024. His life was an odyssey, a restless trek across the American West, navigating three careers and a large family, but wherever he landed, he was always at home. He pitched in to help others, winning them over with a dry sense of humor, and overcame his own trials through faith, hard work and devotion to his family. Like one of the songs he loved to sing, he did it all his own way.
Claude was born the 11th child and a triplet – alongside brothers Theodore Franklin and Otis Delano, their middle names a collective tribute to FDR – in North Platte, NE, during the Great Depression. His parents, Carl Marion Nielsen of Denmark and Mary Estella Stegell of Pleasant Grove, Utah, soon moved the family to Salt Lake City. There, the triplets grew up in a spotlight, each birthday or graduation a photo opportunity for local newspapers. Off-camera, they were the tow-headed terrors of the University district, but they also caddied at the Fort Douglas golf course, graduated together from West High School, played steel guitar and formed a band, served together in the US Army Reserves (Claude became Sergeant First Class), and married within months of each other. Claude would always miss his triplet brothers.
In 1956, he married Margaret Carole Bernstein. They were sealed a year later in the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Over the next 24 years, they had six children: Carole Dawn, Cindy Lee, Claude Douglas, Christon Lynn, Chad David and Clifford Lamont. After living briefly in Layton, they left the state pursuing job opportunities. Claude was an expert precision machinist. He worked at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site near Las Vegas, then the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Livermore, CA, where he created prototype parts for ballistic missiles. He sang tenor in a local choir and enjoyed camping, shooting, and flying balsa model airplanes with his kids. His highest praise was an understated “that’s alright.”
In 1972, the family moved to Alhambra, California, where Claude worked at Cal-Tech by day and attended the Pasadena College of Chiropractic at night, graduating in 1976. As a Doctor of Chiropractic, he indulged the freedom to start over, more than once. He opened a practice in Grand Junction, CO, which did not succeed, then moved the family back to California. He worked as an associate in Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, Modesto and Lakeport, before opening his own practices in Ukiah, Turlock, Auburn, Roseville and Modesto.
Along the way, he often encountered adversity, from government policy changes that affected his income to his youngest son’s childhood illness and devastating losses at the hands of a professional fraudster. But he always believed there were good things ahead if he kept working with a positive mindset. In 1993, after Carole was diagnosed with lupus and given 10 years to live, they moved to St. George, UT, where Claude ran a small excavation business before joining the maintenance team at Deseret Labs. He loved the work, and his co-workers became like a second family, especially after Carole passed away in 2003. He was always proud to say the two were together for 48 years, “and that’s a long time.”
Claude was a man of faith throughout his life, working just as tirelessly in numerous callings for the LDS Church. He was ordained a High Priest and a local Seventy, completed several stake missions, served as Elders Quorum President and volunteered to help out every time he had a chance, whether repainting a widow’s home or staying after large conferences to put away the folding chairs. He met Mary Kay Olkjer during a service project. They married in 2005 and divorced in 2007.
Late in life, Claude rediscovered his love of music and theater in new forms. He performed in musicals at the Tuacahn Center for the Arts, played Frank James in a haunted old west tour, and became a beloved regular at karaoke venues from Mesquite to Parowan. He loved to sing traditional country songs and old standards associated with artists like Hank Williams, George Strait or Frank Sinatra, wowing crowds with his booming tenor and earnest demeanor. Friends called him “Doc Elvis,” in tribute to his professional career and his musical role model: Elvis Presley. He became the oldest-ever tribute artist to compete in “Elvis Rocks Mesquite,” reminding the audience that he was born the same year as the original before removing a black pompadour wig to show off his bald head. He was often supported in these endeavors by his third wife, Shirley Miner Richmond, whom he fittingly met while doing karaoke. They married in 2008.
Claude lived long enough to see the death of loved ones become a common experience. Mary Kay died in 2018. Shirley died in 2020, after he nursed her through a long illness. He lost his triplet brothers in 2010 and 2022 and lamented being the last surviving sibling. He often said, “the day I stop working is the day I start dying.” And so it was. Early last year, when it was no longer safe for him to work, he reluctantly left Deseret Labs to recover from surgery at his daughter’s home in Tucson. There, he quickly made friends at a small karaoke venue, where he appeared every week as long as he could stand or at least stay awake, singing oldies to his heart’s content.
He lived life voraciously and fought to the end. He is preceded in death by too many to name, including four grandchildren and a great-grandchild. He is survived by his six children (and four spouses); 19 surviving grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.
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