Laura Lee Thompson McClure, 81, died Jan. 4 after a brief attack of pneumonia. She was born in Princeton, N.J., on April 20, 1927, and lived there much of her life.
She was known as a talented musician, both as a teacher and performer on piano, organ and harpsichord.
Laura Lee was the daughter of Professor Albert W. Thompson, after whom Thompson Hall on the Washington State University campus is named. During her childhood in Pullman, her family made several extended trips to Europe, where she learned to speak French and German with native proficiency.
She was a 1949 graduate of Mills College in Oakland, Calif. with a B.A. degree in music, magna cum laude, and she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
After her marriage to Donald McClure in 1949, the couple lived in Berkeley, Calif., where she was active in local musical groups and university activities, and where she gave birth to two of their children. In 1955, the couple moved to Princeton, where Don became a group leader at the RCA Laboratories and Laura Lee became one of the original teachers at the New School for Music Study, teaching there from its inception until 1962. During this period, she attended the Westminster Choir College and graduated in 1961 with a B. Music degree in organ performance. Her third child was born in 1959.
Don's career took him to the University of Chicago in 1962, where Laura Lee discovered further opportunities. She founded a women's choral group and served on the women's auxiliary of the Chicago Symphony. She twice played the part of the Witch of Endor in Honneger's "King David" oratorio.
In 1967, the family made its last move, back to Princeton. During this period, she worked for and completed a master's degree at Westminster Choir College and taught piano to many Princeton children. She also sang in the Westminster Symphonic Choir in performances.
She traveled with Don, professor of chemistry at Princeton University, to scientific meetings and vacations in Europe, Russia and Japan.
Laura Lee is fondly remembered for her beauty, warmth and love of life by her survivors, her husband, Donald McClure; her brother, Richard S. Thompson; her brother-in-law, Richard McClure; her children, Edward, Katherine, Kevin and their spouses; her grandchildren, Guillaume Boquet; AmiLin and Ian McClure; her step-grandson, Nicholas Brown and her many friends.
A memorial service in celebration of her life will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau St., Princeton, N.J. 08542.
