Clinton Wayne Terwilliger was born on June 1, 1938, in Dunning, Nebraska. He arrived to Wayne Wise Terwilliger and Pansy Awilda Terwilliger in a little sod house situated in the sandhills of Dunning, Nebraska. The sod house (built by his father) sat on the ranch that his father, uncle and grandfather homesteaded in 1908. The ranch is still a treasured part of the Terwilliger legacy and has been handed down from generation to generation.
Wayne and Pansy had three children together, Clinton, Cleo (-d. Nov. 30, 2007), and Laura Miller (William -d. Nov. 8, 2020).
Clint passed away peacefully at home on Jan. 27, 2025, from heart failure.
He attended elementary and middle school in a one-room schoolhouse called the Wild Horse School with a student body of five students (Clint and his two siblings counted for three of them!). He and his siblings would ride their horses through the sandhills to school each day. Clint left Dunning High School his senior year and joined the Army in 1956, where he served as a welder/machinist for four years. He was stationed in Korea for 13 months, then at Fort Lewis.
After the army moved him to Washington, he met and married Orleta Pearl Jeffries on June 13, 1959. Together, Clint and Orleta had four incredible children, Carmaleta “Cami” Huntting (Leonard), Catrina “Trina” Gardipee - d. Aug. 1, 2016 (Harvey - d. Jan. 21, 2019), Shawneta “Shawnie” Teigen (Scott), and Anthony “Tony” Terwilliger (Rebecca). Clint and Orleta raised their family in Adna, Washington, where they owned and operated Adna Floral for 40 years from 1963 to 2003 when they passed the torch to their son Tony and his family. In his lifetime, Clint and Orleta had 14 grandchildren, Amber, Alyssa, Landon, Tanner, Reuben, Abram, Tiffany, Stephanie - d. March 21, 1986, Trisha, Travis, Logan, Levi and Lawson; and 12 great-grandchildren, Drayven, Hadleigh, Paetynn, Anahbelle, Judah, Quincy, Owen, Jaxon, Brasen, Xander, Emberly and Henry.
Clint worked as a counselor for the Green Hill School for Boys for 13 years. He then was hired by the Adna School District to drive school bus, where he worked for 20 years before retiring to devoting his full attention to his beloved Adna Floral business.
Clinton was a devoted man of God and a proud member of the Napavine Assembly of God Church for the last 20 years where he taught Sunday School and was loved enormously by his brothers and sisters in Christ. Before joining Napavine AOG, Clint and Orleta were members of the Full Gospel Tabernacle and Bethel Assembly of God. He loved teaching Sunday school, serving men’s breakfast and was a steward of the Bible.
Clinton will be remembered by his family and friends as someone who always put God first, loved his family fiercely, always had a corny joke to tell - sometimes in story form so that you didn’t know if he was serious or not, hard-working and inventive, very intelligent and insanely creative. He always had a solution for every problem and was a natural counselor to anyone who sought his advice.
One of Clinton’s favorite life accomplishments was becoming a published author at the age of 83. His book, Valley on the Mountain is available on Amazon. Something he was so very proud of. His family can see his imagination through the words he wrote and will cherish this work for the rest of their lives.
Arrangements are provided by Newell-Hoerling's Mortuary. A memorial service and lunch reception will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the Napavine Assembly of God Church, 414 2nd Avenue, Napavine, WA 98565. All who knew Clinton are invited to celebrate his beautiful life.
