CLEON A. MOE

CLEON A. MOE

Cleon Moe was born October 1, 1934, to Gilman and Mattie Overby Moe at Roseau, Minnesota.  His mother passed away when he was ten days old.  She requested her brother Paul Overby and his wife Sophie take him.  Cleon had a wonderful childhood.  Paul and Sophie always made sure he got to see his birth father, brother and the rest of the family once a year.

Cleon was never adopted by the Overbys however when he became an adult, he requested it.  In a letter he received from his “Ma” in later years she enclosed a small piece of colored paper with this written in her handwriting.  “Not a flesh of my flesh.  Not bone of my bone.  But yet miraculously my own.  Don’t forget it for a minute.  You didn’t grow under my heart, but in it.”  He carried that with him until it was no longer readable.

He attended Bryan Township country school through eighth grade, graduating from Binford Public School in 1952.  Attended Mayville State Teachers College earning enough credits to teach the rural school he had attended as a child.  In 1953 he received his Standard Certificate and began teaching and coaching basketball at the Courtenay Public School until the spring of 1959.

In the fall of 1959, he entered the ministry in North Dakota continuing until 1968.

At that time, he returned to Mayville and received his B.S. degree and began teaching high school English at Newaygo, Michigan.  The following year he began his teaching career teaching junior high English at Saginaw, Michigan.  In 1971 he started what became the annual Saginaw Spelling Bee and was honored to have one of his students compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D. C.

He went into the ministry in Michigan in 1982 but for health reasons had to leave in 1985.  He returned to teaching English at Saginaw in adult education retiring in 1994.  He spent from then until 2014 in his home in Essexville, Michigan, at which time he entered the Griggs County Care Center in Cooperstown.

He is survived by his half-brother Robert Moe (Ann), cousins Gordon Overby, Elton Overby (Sylvia) and Clarice Kadry (Richard) and numerous nieces and nephews.

Proceeded in death by his biological parents, adoptive parents, siblings Mahlon Moe (Fern), Infant twins Hans and Clara Overby, Inga Willett (Leon), Emma Baker (Paul), Andrew Overby (Audrey), Clarence Overby, Clara Vigesaa (Walter), Byron Overby (Vernette), Roy Overby (Lillian), Baby Selma Overby, and half-brother Dennis Moe.

A special thank you goes to the staff at the Griggs County Care Center for the wonderful care Cleon has received.

Visitation will be Tuesday, December 5, 2023, from 12:00 pm till 1:00 pm followed by a Memorial Service at 1:00 pm in the Quam-Plaisted-Cushman Funeral Home, Cooperstown, ND burial will follow in the Trinity Cemetery, Binford, ND.

No flowers, please.

Companions in North Dakota                                       Companions in Michigan

1959-1960 Erling Omdal                                                1982-1983 Henry Eicher

      1960-1961 Willie Sullivan                                              1983-1984 Elsworth Shilling

                                                                                      1961-1962 Herbert Beth                                                1984-1985 Charles Mattson

                                                                                      1962-1963 Erling Omdal

                                                                                      1963-1966 Kenneth Olson

                                                                                      1966-1967 Erling Omdal

                                                                                      1967-1968 Herbert Beth