Clair Cannon

Clair Cannon, known for her generosity, hospitality, and faith-filled desire to help others, died on September 29, 2025, surrounded by her loving husband and three children. The cause of death was metastatic ovarian cancer. She was 75.

Among other activities in her early life, she lived in and managed a home for single mothers in Alexandria, Virginia, created the Idaho Falls Community Food Bank (which continues today, 45 years later), and sponsored refugee families from conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Tigray, Ethiopia. She did all these activities in partnership with others. She felt that her time with refugees enriched her life far more than what she did for them. That led in later life to an affinity for other refugees, and in particular, friendship with one of the legendary Sudanese "Lost Boys" and his family.

In later life, Clair became a landlord. Normally, she diligently and successfully screened tenants, but a few times, she rented to more risky tenants because she thought they deserved a chance. The risks proved real in most cases, but did not trouble her greatly. Renting apartments and the rest of her life was about more than just money.

Clair had a remarkable gift of hospitality, opening her home to guests for meals. She made them feel comfortable and they often confided in her. Sometimes, her hospitality went well beyond the normal. A friend recently recounted that, after his son was born, Clair invited him for dinner. He stopped by 9 hours later around 10:30 p.m. "... thinking that I'd just pop in for a few minutes. Clair wouldn't have that. And so, at 10:30 p.m., Clair presented me with a sumptuous steak dinner - baked potato, salad, hot bread, and wine."

Her hospitality extended to providing living space to numerous people in life transitionssuch as divorce, recovery from traumatic experiences, or short time needs associated with a move. Those who stayed for a short time became part of the Cannon family.

LIGHTER MOMENTS

I (Joel) like Clair's off-beat experiences. What follows are some big ones that I think warrant more explanation than would be found in a normal obituary.

Clair spent most of her 1967-68 junior year in France as part of Hollins College's junior year abroad program. As part of that program, Hollins arranged a tour of European countries, including Russia, where the group stopped in Moscow. Cold War Soviet Union was the archetype of a scary, oppressive totalitarian state.

So what did Clair and her friend Pammy do in Moscow? They climbed out of their dorm window to explore Moscow at night. Seemingly remarkable, shortly after exiting their dorm to the empty streets of Moscow, a car of young English-speaking Russians picked them up, and took them to a Moscow night club.

Such was the story until 1983 when we had dinner with a Russian couple and started to tell Clair's Moscow story. The story did not get far. First, my friend Peter said, "Wait! Where did you find a night club? I lived in Moscow and I do not know where a night club is." And as he was talking, his wife Irina said, "KGB, KGB, KGB!," which Peter affirmed. Apparently, our beautiful generous friend Clair was once picked up by the KGB.

Pammy triggered another of Clair's important experiences. Pammy knew that Buckminster Fuller (Bucky) sometimes hired cooks on Bear Island, his home off the coast of Maine. Approaching graduation, this sounded attractive, so Clair and Pammy wrote a letter to Bucky about cooking for him that summer. They were accepted, but in the meantime Pammy, the one who could cook, accepted a computer programming job.

Clair continued on despite never having cooked, thinking that she was going to be a cook's helper. The shock arrived on the sail to Bear Island; Clair was told that she was the cook (the only cook!) and that she was cooking her first meal for 20+ that night on a wood stove (no electricity on the island)! Fortunately, the meal was simple - lobster and corn on the cob - and Bucky's daughter, sensing Clair's alarm, helped.

Clair's cooking education had begun - and it continued through the summer as she read Joy of Cooking at night by candle light. And over the summer, she became friends with Buckminster Fuller.

Clair's entertaining regrets at the end of life were few, illustrated by the fact that on one of her last days when Wes asked her if she regretted anything, she replied that she wished she had not sold her precious 1966 Volvo. At the time she sold it, it was a rusted-out, 25-year-old car with a street value of several hundred dollars.

DETAILS

Clair Cannon was born as Clair Caroline Fahnestock to Kenneth and Jane Fahnestock on December 5, 1949, in Westfield, NJ. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Summit, NJ. She attended Kent Place School, from which she graduated in 1965. She graduated from Hollins College in Roanoke, VA, in 1971. Shortly after, she converted to Christianity, which profoundly influenced the rest of her life, leading to many years of caring and service to others, especially to those less fortunate. In 1977, she obtained a Diploma of Christian Studies (a degree roughly equivalent to a Masters in the U.S.) from Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. While at Regent, she met Joel Cannon, whom she would marry on June 16, 1979.

Clair is survived by her husband, Joel W. Cannon, her children Wes, Abby, and Mattie Cannon, and their spouses Cruz Newman (Wes), Tim Scales (Abby), and Patrik Beichner (Mattie), and grandson Emerson Scales-Cannon.

We invite you to celebrate Clair's life at a graveside ceremony at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery on Monday at 1 PM. Following the burial, we will gather for a meal at Durham Central Park Cohousing Community, 130 Hunt St., Durham, NC 27701. We encourage guests to dress casually and wear shoes that are comfortable to hike in since Bluestem is an environmental cemetery and we will be walking to both the service and burial site. Golf carts will be available.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that those who wish to honor Clair contribute to SLED or Southern Poverty Law Center

SLED (the Student Loan Experiment), was one of Clair's favorite programs. Clair found Pittsburgh Mennonite Church (PMC) refreshing, and SLED was the first thing she mentioned when telling others why PMC was refreshing.

In SLED members' own words: SLED started at PMC in 2012 when a group of young adults decided to band together and find a creative and collaborative way to support those in the group feeling overburdened by student loan debt. Based on the practice of "relational tithing," SLED functions as a lending circle with a twist: rather than the traditional model where every member who pays in each month getting a month's worth of those payments throughout the cycle, SLED operates with many members paying in but not getting a payment out. These "angel investors" instead solely pay in with the idea of helping their community members get out of debt faster - and include several previous recipients who are now student loan free.

SLED is neither a non-profit nor tax deductible. But it inspired Clair so much that we made regular contributions.

Since SLED is not a charitable organization, a member acts as treasurer, collecting and disbursing funds. The treasurer suggested that it would be much easier for her to have Joel collect the funds and forward them to her. To contribute to SLED, send your donation to Joel Cannon either by Venmo (Joel-Cannon-3) or mail a check made out to Joel Cannon to Joel Cannon; 130 Hunt St. #402; Durham NC 27701. Please put SLED in the memo line. Joel will make the donation to SLED on Clair's behalf.

If you prefer to give to a charitable non-profit that has a website through which you can contribute, please consider Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization to which Joel and Clair contributed for many years.