Born Elizabeth Clare Magers on March 23, 1976 at Odessa Regional Medical Center to her parents Hugh Magers and Joan Magers. Called Clare from the beginning by her family, her older sister of 11 years, Laura, often called her Clare Bear or Baby Clare. She was the youngest of her five female cousins, older only than her one male cousin. Growing up, her family moved around a lot with her father’s position in the church. Over her childhood, she lived in Odessa, Eagle Pass, San Antonio, Sulphur Springs, and lastly Ponder, where she graduated from Ponder High School in 1994.

Clare met her future husband, Chris, while attending college at Texas A&M University. They married on Aug. 17, 1996. They had three years of married life in Alpine while attending Sul Ross State University before they had their first daughter, Catherine. Then they moved to Terre Haute Indiana for Chris to earn his PhD, where she made some wonderful friends while living in exile from Texas. They moved back to Alpine in 2004, and after another four years, she had her second daughter Teresa, making Clare the happy mother of two. She worked for Sul Ross for 10 years, shifting departments to help organize and build up different parts of the university. Clare also worked within the community, providing a familiar face and warmth at the 588 COOP, Come-&-Take-It BBQ, Spicewood, and Gringo.

Clare always wanted to be a mother and she spread her love to a generation of Sul Ross students as well as many of her daughters’ friends. Her kindness and peoplewrangling skills helped her become a force of nature for every project she worked on. A lover of animals, rocks, big machines and people, Clare thrived in her community and loved helping others be the best they could be. There was never a person she wouldn’t help or task she wouldn’t take on, filled with determination and compassion. This was seen in both her work ethic and volunteer service.

There will be a Celebration of Love on Feb. 18 in Alpine at Old Gringo at 4 p.m. and a graveside service later in March at Dobbs Valley Cemetery, south of Mineral Wells. Clare lives on in her husband Christopher Michael Ritzi, her daughters Catherine Marie and Teresa Loren, her mother Joan Magers, her sister and brotherin- law Laura and Raymond Miller, her nieces Sarah Miller and Megan Miller Tabb, her son-inlaw Max Lannom, and a pantheon of friends and extended family through all the stories and love she left behind to all of her “adoptive children” and friends.

Instead of flowers, the family asks if you could donate to Angel Care Hospice in Midland or www. HospitalityApartments. org in Houston in memory of Clare Ritzi.

Online condolences may be left at: www. alpinememorialfuneralhome.

com Services have been entrusted to Alpine Memorial Funeral Home.