Claudia Lee Bigelow

submitted by: Cora Ortega

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Claudia Lee Bigelow was born February 24th, 1929, in San Pedro California. She had two parents named Ardith Louise Bailey and Claude Alton Bigelow. She was the oldest sibling; her younger brother was named John Claude Bigelow. In her early life, she went to lots of different schools because her dad was serving in the military branch of the army. She lived in Japan, Germany, and all over the United States including California and Utah.
She did not go to college but she still learned a lot of things and had a lot of experiences in her life. She learned and loved to clean and sew she would sew a new outfit every day for school so that she would never repeat an outfit. She was an offroad pioneer in California and she loved Disneyland and Tinkerbell. She opened up a dry cleaners business in Seal Beach California when she was an adult. She made costumes for plays and Broadway productions in Los Angeles California.
She had a lot of kids whom she really loved including my uncles Dean, Howie, Mikey, Robbie, and my mom Briyana. My grandma was the best at sewing and she was always making something and doing something creative. She loved to create and do new things more than anything. She also worked with the Red Cross running shelters after natural disasters, she ran a shelter for Hurricane Katrina survivors where she met Oprah and Will Smith.
Sadly she died last year due to cancer at age seventy-four, she had sixteen grandkids, five children, and a loving husband and mom that will continue her memory and legacy. We all miss her but she left behind baking cookbooks and quilts that we will continue to use forever.