SHAWNEE – Miriam McPherson (Cheeseman) Clouse, 101, of Shawnee, Oklahoma, crossed over to her next life on March 23, 2022. Cremation has taken place and a private memorial service may be scheduled at a later date.
She was born on July 9, 1920, in Coffeyville, Kansas, to Owen M. Cheeseman and Pauline (Feathers) Cheeseman, the third of seven children.
Miriam graduated from Arkansas City High School in Arkansas City, Kansas, in
1938. She attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence for one year where she was a member of the Tau Sigma Honorary Society. The next year was spent in training as a psychiatric nurse at Osawatomie State Hospital in Osawatomie, Kansas. In 1942 Miriam graduated from Coffeyville Junior College with an AA degree. She later completed her BS in Education in 1965 and MS in Education in 1967 at Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University). In 1964 and 1965 she was in college at the same time with two of her children.
Miriam married Joseph L. Clouse and after three children they divorced. She and her children moved to Emporia, Kansas, in 1959 and in 1968 she moved to Norman, Oklahoma, and then on to Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1978.
While her children were growing up, Miriam owned a dance studio where she was a dance instructor. Later she was an elementary school teacher, yoga instructor, massage therapist, and houseparent for the Shawnee Association for Retarded Citizens (SARC). After retirement she was a volunteer tutor for the Shawnee
Literacy Council for many years.
While in Coffeyville and Emporia she attended the First Presbyterian Church and in Oklahoma the Christ Center of Divine Philosophy in Oklahoma City.
Membership in organizations included the International Graphoanalysis Society, the Shawnee Literacy Council, Writers’ Club, Gem and Mineral Club, and Friends of the Library. She wrote poetry and many children’s stories. At the age of 89 her first children’s book was published.
Miriam was preceded in death by her parents, five brothers, her only sister, and her older daughter Polly (Clouse) Farlow.
She is survived by her children Joey Clouse and his wife Susan of The Villages, Florida; Becky Clouse and her husband Joseph Miller, Jr., of Junction City, Kansas; five grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
