Camille Marita Claxton, 79, of Hutchinson, Kansas, died peacefully on September 9, 2026, at Hospice House of Reno County, surrounded by the family she spent a lifetime gathering close.

She was born March 4, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, the third of six children of Louis and Frances Malpocker. She grew up on Capitol Hill Drive in St. Louis County and remembered an idyllic childhood there. Her family called her their sunshine girl.

Camille graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in 1965 and then made what she later called the small decision that changed everything. Everyone she knew was staying in St. Louis or heading to Columbia, Missouri. She went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale instead. “Needless to say,” she wrote, “that’s where I met the love of my life. Good decision, I’d say.” His name is Dave Claxton.

Both of them have told the story of the night they met. Both called it the small decision that mattered most. Dave’s version began with the 12-pack of beer he brought to an apartment party in the spring of 1968. Camille’s began at a steak restaurant where she was hosting and he was cooking. Then he walked into that party carrying the beer, she called him over, and neither of them moved for the rest of the night. Call it fate. They were married in Carbondale on May 22, 1969.

Camille became a dental hygienist in 1969 and practiced for more than four decades, working for six dentists and dental groups across three states before retiring in 2012. She worked part-time by design and liked to say that what saved her sanity as the mother of four active children was her job and a dishwasher.

Their first children arrived seven weeks early. Nobody knew there were twins until Kim had been delivered and the doctor said, “Wait, there’s another baby in here!” Jennifer came three minutes later. JP followed five years after that. And Andrea four years later.

Kansas arrived by telephone. Dave was working an audit in Hutchinson and called home to give Camille his flight time. He then added that while he was in the air she might think about what it would be like to live in Kansas because he had been offered a job. The family moved seven times in ten years including a stretch in Alton, Illinois, before returning to Hutchinson in the summer of 1978 for good. It was home for the rest of her life. Camille and her family were longtime members of Church of the Holy Cross. She was a member of P.E.O.

Her youngest sister, Debbie, was fourteen years behind her, and says Camille was never only a big sister. She was always out ahead showing the way. Debbie doesn’t remember being sat down and told how to live; she remembers watching, and learning from it how to love a family, how to take care of people, and how to be there when someone needs you. A great many people would say close to the same thing.

In a family of strong personalities, Camille was the one who kept the balance. She was the mediator and was good at it. She knew how to raise a hard subject and when to wait. She never met conflict with conflict. Camille handled difficult moments and difficult people with a delicacy that made things easier for everyone around her.

Camille was a full partner in what Dave built. He started American Packaging in South Hutchinson in May 1987. She served as its corporate secretary and payroll clerk. Later, when he told her he had joined a trade group whose next gathering happened to be in Hawaii, she said, “Dave, you’re a genius.”

She was braver than she gave herself credit for. She rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon for eight days to mark her fiftieth birthday, camping under the stars in the rainy season. At dinner on a cruise in the Baltic Sea, Camille noticed the woman at the next table choking, crossed the room, and performed the Heimlich maneuver correctly while several doctors looked on. Then she went back to her seat, where, as she put it, it took her a while to settle down.

She and Dave saw a great deal of the world together and did it their own way, setting out on road trips through Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the American West with a rough route, no reservations, and no itinerary, staying longer wherever they liked the look of things. Together they reached all seven continents and swam in every ocean. In December 2017, they both jumped off the back of the ship into the frigid waters of the Antarctic and then warmed up with cognac. At sixty, when her children arranged for her to go paragliding off a Maui mountainside, she went.

But what she came back to was closer in. Asked what had mattered most in her life, Camille answered without hesitation: her family, marriage, and eleven grandchildren who meant the world to her. The family’s house on Table Rock Lake was what kept everyone in touch. She wrote that being together there were some of their happiest times.

Among the things she wanted her children and grandchildren to know: believe in yourself, you are enough. Trust your instincts. Learn how to listen because you can’t learn anything while you’re talking. Before you judge, understand why. Before you speak, think. Work as hard on your family life as you do on your career. And learn how to forgive.

Of their marriage Camille wrote, “We’re not perfect, but the fruits of the efforts have blossomed as we grow old together. Love.” Dave, writing his own book near the end of it, put it this way: Camille Malpocker and Dave Claxton are still in love today.

Camille fought lung cancer for more than a year, first with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. In mid-July she began a new, aggressive targeted therapy. She suffered a severe reaction to it in late August. The resulting lung injury proved irreversible. She entered hospice care and died peacefully with her husband and children beside her.

She is survived by her: husband of 57 years, Dave Claxton, of Hutchinson, Kansas; daughter Kim Schleich and husband Tony of Hutchinson, Kansas; daughter Jennifer Blandi and husband Mike of Leawood, Kansas; son JP Claxton and wife Emily of Leawood, Kansas;, daughter Andrea Claxton of Salt Lake City, Utah; eleven grandchildren, ranging in age from 27 to 7: Callie and Brittany Schleich; Tevis, Miles, Chase, and Bryce Blandi; Peter, Leo, Joey, and Mary Claxton; and Jack Morgan; and four of her five siblings, Tony Malpocker, Ken Malpocker, Joey Malpocker, and Debbie Thompson and their families.

She was preceded in death by her: parents Louis and Frances Malpocker; sister Judy Fischer; sister-in-law Nancy Malpocker; and brother-in-law Dan Thompson.

Mass of Catholic Burial will be held Friday, October 9, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., at Church of the Holy Cross, 2631 Independence Road, Hutchinson. There will be a Celebration of Life reception at Prairie Dunes Country Club, 4812 E. 30th, Hutchinson, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. immediately following the service. A room block is available at the Hilton Garden Inn under “Claxton Room Block” until September 24. Friends may sign her book from 9:00 am to 5 pm at Elliott Mortuary until the day of the service.