Renee & Linda McClellan: Family, Orchards & a Lifetime in the Chelan Valley

Welcome back to Small Towns Unscripted.Today's conversation is a special one for me, and a little more personal. I'm sitting down with Lorene “Renee” McClellan and her daughter, Linda McClellan, to talk about family, orchards, and a lifetime of history here in the Chelan and Manson area.Renee comes from a generational Quincy-area family. Her father passed away when she was just two years old, and when Renee was around four, she and her older sister Janet moved to Chelan. She was still just a little girl, but Chelan would become home and the place where so much of the rest of her life would unfold.Renee was just 16 years old when she met Charles “Kip” McClellan. That meeting began a relationship that would become more than 60 years of marriage, two children, Doug and Linda, and a lifetime of working side by side.There's also a close connection between our families. Linda's grandfather and my grandfather on my dad's side were brothers, making Kip and my dad, Donald McClellan, first cousins.Kip was born in Missouri in 1930 and came west to Manson as a young boy. Interestingly, my grandmother Daisy also came to the Chelan Valley from Missouri as a young girl, making the journey by covered wagon. So there's a lot of family history and some interesting connections that we get to explore in this conversation.Kip and Renee built a life together around family and agriculture. At one point, they farmed more than 100 acres of apple orchards throughout the Valley. Kip also kept books for other farmers, prepared taxes, and operated a custom spraying service for orchardists throughout the area.And Renee was right there alongside him.Like so many women of that generation, she raised their family, worked seasonally sorting and packing apples, helped support the farm, and did whatever needed to be done.Renee and Kip were a team.But what stands out to me isn't just what they accomplished or how many acres they farmed. It's the kind of people they were.Kip was a genuinely gentle, kind and selfless man who was always willing to help somebody else. And Renee carries those same qualities today.Sadly, Kip eventually passed away after living with dementia. When you hear Renee talk about him, you quickly understand how deep their relationship was. She shared that there's not a day that goes by that Kip isn't still with her in some way, as she thinks about him and the life they shared together.Today, Renee lives with her granddaughter, not far from the orchard and home where so much of that life took place. She'll turn 90 years old this October, and when you listen to her, I think you'll be struck by just how sharp, resilient and incredibly grateful she is.Renee is a remarkable example of resilience, gratitude and grace. After nearly 90 years of life—with all the hard work, change, love and loss that comes with it—she still has an incredible appreciation for the life she's lived, the people she's loved and the memories she carries with her.And I think that's something that stays with you long after this conversation is over.This episode is certainly about orchards and old Chelan and Manson, but it's really about much more than that. It's about family, marriage, hard work, community, loss, resilience and gratitude. It's also about a generation of orchard families who worked together, depended on their neighbors, raised their kids in the orchards and helped shape this Valley into what it is today.And that's exactly why we started Small Towns Unscripted—to sit down, listen, and preserve the stories and voices of the people and families who helped make our small towns what they are.I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.Renee and Linda McClellan, on Small Towns Unscripted.