Clorene Thomas Bidegain

b. June 11, 1925 Central, Arizona
d. Apri 9, 2005 Tucson, Arizona

 Clorene and her husband, Pete Bidegain, are a shining example of what a blended family looks like. Pete's first wife, Mary, contracted polio when he was working for the U.S. Government in Mexico City. Despite immediately returning to a hospital in Tucson, Mary passed away. Pete and his daughter Page moved to Casa Grande to live with Mary's parents.

 About the same time Clorene, her husband, and daughter Brenda were living in occupied Japan where he had served on a U.S. Navy vessel. The ship caught fire at sea and he was lost. Clorene and Brenda went back to Arizona and moved in with Clorene's family in Casa Grande.

 Pete and Clorene eloped when Brenda was seven and Page was five. The following year Cathy was born, followed by Peter and Todd. A happier family would have been hard to find. The love of the five children and their parents resonated with a feeling that is almost palpable.

 The Bidegains moved to the Babacomari Ranch in Elgin in 1961 when the youngest, Todd, was three. Pete had become manager of the ranch. Clorene was standing at the kitchen window watching Todd one day when the horse he was on started running toward the house. "Somebody had left the gate open down at the corral, and I could see my baby on the horse coming and Pete trying to catch him and tell the horse to stop, which he didn't." Pete said, "I couldn’t catch him till I got there and plunk, off he went on the cold hard ground."

 The other greatly anticipated entertainment besides horseback riding was every time the creek flooded the kids would all go jump in the arroyo, not a safe thing to do, but for kids, Clorene explained, "it was exciting. When I think about it now, letting my kids jump in those creeks that were rushing down and all the rattlesnakes and everything else. I don't know what I was thinking about," she said. Pete and Clorene had five children: Brenda Bidegain Braswell, Page Bidegain Gayler, Cathy Bidegain Duke, Peter Bidegain and Todd Bidegain.

written by Betty Barr from oral interviews
she had with Pete and Clorene in 2001 and Brenda in 2016.

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SCS 8/19/24

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