---

CLARA LONG CHAMBERS

Clara Long Chambers, age 77, left this sweet, old world on December 7, 2005 after a period of declining health. She was a native and lifelong resident of Clay County making her home on a hilltop overlooking the shores of beautiful Lake Chatuge and the Shooting Creek mountain range. She was a homemaker and a member of the Ledford's Chapel United Methodist Church.

Clara loved her cats and the wild birds she fed for many years just outside her living room window where she could watch them through the seasons. She enjoyed plants and flowers, always looking forward to the summer so she could get her hanging baskets filled with petunias and impatiens onto the front porch.

She will be remembered for her wit and sense of humor. A good listener with a flair for telling great stories, she always enjoyed her many friends and family, eagerly welcoming their phone calls and visits. She was an avid reader and passed along her love of books to her children, and enjoyed giving books as gifts to her family and friends.

She was the daughter of the late Claude C. and Gertrude Coleman Long and the wife of the late Ray Henson Chambers, Sr., who died June 5, 1972. She was also preceded in death by her daughter-in-law, Carolyn Dye Chambers.

Surviving are two daughters, Lynne Keiser and husband, Walt of Fayetteville, GA and Dianne Teague and husband, Bill of Tuscaloosa, AL; a son, Ray Henson Chambers, Jr. and wife, Jackie of Gastonia, NC; a granddaughter, Tara Chambers Safriet and husband, Van of Irmo, SC; two grandsons, Christopher Henson Keiser and Matthew Brittain Keiser both of Fayetteville, GA; a great grandson, Coleman Baxter Safriet of Irmo, SC; three nieces, Deborah Kleineick of Kingsport, TN, and Lisa Chambers Burch and Stephanie Chambers both of Hayesville; two nephews, Robert William Chambers, Jr. of Knoxville, TN and Jodie Michael Chambers of Hayesville; and two brothers-in-law, Robert Chambers, Sr. of Kingsport, TN and Larry Chambers and wife, Joanne of Hayesville.

Funeral services at 10:00 AM Friday (December 9) in the Chapel of Ivie Funeral Home, Hayesville with the Reverend Jackie Sellers officiating. Burial following immediately in the Ledford's Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery. Pallbearers: Richard Burch, Bill Chambers, Jodie Michael Chambers, Jim Curtis, Ken Martin, and John Rosenkranz. Honorary pallbearers: the compassionate nurses and other staff members at the Clay County Care Center, and the friends and caregivers whose many kindnesses to Clara will always be remembered by the family.

The family will receive friends from 6-8 Thursday evening at the Ivie Funeral Home, Hayesville.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made in memory of Clara Long Chambers to the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC 28904.

Ivie Funeral Home, Hayesville in charge of all arrangements.

---