Alvina LaClair 1922-2020

Alvina “Mee-gis-kee” Wamego LaClair, 97, Mayetta, died Sunday, June 7, 2020, at her home.

She was born Dec. 21, 1922, on the Potawatomi Reservation, the daughter of Henry and Florence Walters Wamego. She graduated from Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma and also attended school in Pierre, S.D., and Genoa, Neb. She lived most of her life on the Potawatomi Reservation and also lived in Topeka and Kansas City. 

Ms. LaClair worked for the Sunflower Ammunition Plant in De Soto during World War II and worked for many years for Scotch Dry Cleaners in Topeka. 

She was a member of the Drum Religion and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. She was a born-again Christian. 

She married Milton LaClair. They divorced.

Survivors include a son, Franklin LaClair and wife Barbara, Topeka; two daughters, Sara Gartenmayer and Shirley Trull and husband Paul, all of Mayetta; four grandchildren, Travis Wanna, William LaClair, Rachael Webster and Caroline LaClair; and six great-grandchildren. 

She was preceded in death by her father, Henry Wamego, in 1936; a brother, Paul George Wamego, in 1944 in France; a sister, Vivian Arnold Gomez, in 1966; her mother, Florence Wamego, in 1974; a sister, Josie Pahmahmie, in 1977; a son, James LaClair, in 1977; a sister, Lottie Stump, in 1981; a sister, Osie Tuckwin, in 1986; a daughter, Marlene LaClair Wright, in 1989; a granddaughter, Helen Wright, in 1989; a sister, Louise “Cham” Rice, in 1990; a sister, Beverly Nocktonick, in 1991; a sister, Edna Sioux, in 1994; a brother, Floyd Wamego, in 2004; and her ex-husband, Milton LaClair, in 2016.

Ms. LaClair will lie in state until 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 9 and until 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 10 at Mercer Funeral Home in Holton. Private family burial will be held Thursday at Wah-wak-sum Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to any local humane society.