Claire Draper

1933 - 2020

Claire Jaworski Draper
1933-2020
Claire Jaworski Draper—mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend, Christian role model and moral anchor of her extended family—passed away on the early morning of Sunday, May 24, 2020. She was 86 and suffered medical complications worsened by her three-year bout with Alzheimer's. Her decline was rapid and without pain, ending exactly six months to the day after her husband of 64 years, Robert Elliott "Bob" Draper, departed this world.
Claire was born on September 30, 1933 in Houston, a city she would adore to her last breath. She was the middle of three children whose father, Leon Jaworski, was a rising star in Texas legal circles. After attending Sutton Elementary, Johnson Junior High and then San Jacinto Senior High, Claire enrolled in her father's alma mater, Baylor University. Though an outstanding student, the ease with which the discreet brunette slipped out her dormitory window at night drew the dean's attention, as had a school essay of hers, pointedly entitled "Puritanism at Baylor." She was advised to complete her education elsewhere. This episode was providential, for while resuming studies at the University of Houston, her sister Joanie's then-husband set Claire up on a blind date with his University of Texas fraternity brother who happened to be apartment-shopping in town: a strapping redheaded extrovert named Bob Draper. Six months later, the two were engaged. On September 17, 1955, she became Claire Draper. Ten months after that, she was a mother.
Though she ultimately obtained a B.A. at Baylor through correspondence courses and acquired a teaching certificate, the demands of motherhood overwhelmed those ambitions as she valiantly sought to domesticate her three boys. In a household of males, she became a sports fan and habituated herself to clutters of dirty baseball uniforms and GI Joe's. Far from losing her sense of self, however, Claire made the Draper household her ecosystem. She filled it with works of fiction and social psychology, folk music, nutritious Southwestern food, knowing humor and fur-bearing creatures. Her keen intellect implicitly challenged her offspring not to settle for mediocrity, and she drew bright red lines that bigots and bullies learned not to cross in her presence. She faithfully rounded up her sons for Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church every Sunday and just as reliably canceled out her husband's Republican vote every four years. Never one to sermonize but instead to lead by example, she ferried books and clothes to women's prisons as well as household goods to underprivileged Houston communities. An introvert among outsized personalities, Claire was ever attentive to the neglected. Thanks to her reflexive graciousness, the Draper abode on Apple Tree Road became, for so many of her son's friends, a home they could count on, perhaps even more than their own.
A true servant-leader, Claire Draper left behind no debts, only those deeply indebted to her and now at pains to imagine life without her quiet stewardship. Among the latter are her brother Joseph Jaworski and sister Joanie Moncrief; her two surviving sons Robert and John Draper and, respectively, Robert's fiancée Kirsten Powers and John's wife Laura Sandlin Draper; her granddaughter, John and Laura's daughter Delilah Draper; and nine surviving nieces and nephews. Funeral services are pending improved health conditions. In lieu of flowers, Claire's sons request that donations be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation and to Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church.