Clara E. Broeker age 98, of Rapid City, SD formerly of Mitchell died April 10, 2005 at Beverly Healthcare Center in Rapid City, SD. Funeral services will be 11:00 AM Friday at the Will Funeral Chapel with burial at Graceland Cemetery. Visitation will be from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM Friday at the Will Funeral Chapel. Clara Broeker, was the youngest of seven children born in Yankton, SD to Albert and Lucy Sparks on January 27, 1907. The family homesteaded east of Rapid City, SD where the children attended rural schools. Clara was united in marriage with Ed. F. Broeker from ONeill, NE on November 9, 1928. After residing in various areas in the South Dakota area, they settled in Mitchell, SD where they farmed for a period of time and later moved into the city. She loved her home and it clearly showed even though she worked many hours at other various jobs. Clara truly made a house into a loving home for her husband and children. Many admired Claras avid gardening skills. Many likened her yard as looking like a park with the perfectly manicured grass, beautiful colorful varieties of flowers, trees and shrubs. Her other gardening skills were the big vegetable gardens. Claras family and friends were fortunate in having shared her labors of love from fresh vegetables every summer. A comment was made Give Clara a teaspoon of dirt and she can grow anything! Clara also raised chickens, providing fresh eggs and the ritual Sunday afternoon chicken dinners, which she took great pride in. She would set the formal dinning room with her best dishes and starched tablecloth, in preparation of this feast. It was complete with her homemade bread, cinnamon rolls, bread pudding and apple pie. All those who knew her will long remember her baking skills. Clara was such a hard worker throughout her years. While living her last two years at Fox Run Living Home in Rapid City, she joined her daughter Helen and son-in-law Stan (Pete) , every Sunday for dinner and beauty shop treatment. Even with her legally blind condition, she loved and insisted on doing the dishes and did them well! Some of her employment fields pertained to cleaning homes, meat cutting, egg produce, and a dietician at the local college and a nursing home in Mitchell until she was 75 years of age. Clara drove a car until she was well into her 80s. Clara was a devoted, loving mother to her five children, Helen Peterson, and her husband Stan, Rapid City, SD, Norma Hatzenbuhler , Rapid City, SD, Lucille Blindauer, Denver, CO, Chuck Broeker and his wife, Mary Ann, Carbondale, IL, Donna Knigge, Denver, CO. Clara has 17 grandchildren; 40 great grandchildren; and 7 great great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ed Broeker; a son, Robert Broeker, a grandson, Craig Broeker; three son-in-laws, Rolland Knigge, John Blindauer, and Richard Hatzenbuhler.