Hat Island woman’s heart and humor won her friends

The day before she died, Clydeana Pouria fulfilled her duty to the tight-knit community of Hat Island, a place she had made her own.

“She came to our meeting and gave her report. She was vice commodore of yachting,” said Mike Worthy, a neighbor and longtime friend of Pouria’s.

As a member of the Hat Island Yacht and Golf Club with her husband, Dick, Pouria had devoted years to volunteer positions on the private island three miles off Everett in Possession Sound. She had served on the island’s board and worked on a newspaper called the Mad Hatter.

More than that, with her big laugh, quick wit and a bent for discourse, she had made friends for life.

“She loved to get into a good discussion, and they could get pretty heated,” Dick Pouria said. “She was very opinionated. But the next day, it was all hugs and kisses.”

Clydeana Dolores Pouria died Aug. 7. She was 71.

Since 2002, she had lived with cancer, which she kept from all but those closest to her.

“She had a personal, inner strength, and she did it exactly the way she chose,” Worthy said. “That was a tough decision, not to include everyone in knowing that.”

Dick Pouria said when his wife learned of her illness, she insisted on going ahead with a planned trip to Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. “A doctor said, ‘You can’t let her go on this trip,’ but she said, ‘I’m going.’ We did take the trip, and it was the best thing she ever did,” he said.

After that, the couple went to Spain, cruised the Mediterranean and went to Italy to see the Sistine Chapel and other sights.

Born in Portland, Ore., and raised in Spokane, Clydeana Pouria is survived by her husband of 39 years and many friends.

In the wintertime, she and her husband were snowbirds, migrating with Hat Island friends to Mesa, Ariz.

So many friends knew her as a fervent fan of the Washington State University Cougars, they sang the WSU fight song at her funeral.

“She was a die-hard Coug,” said Linda Jensen, who recalled staying with Dick and Cly Pouria in Mesa, then driving to watch WSU play in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. “She was a fun lady.”

A WSU graduate with a degree in interior design, Pouria worked as a graphic artist. For 17 years, she owned and operated Ideas Art Etc. in Everett.

Civic-minded, she’d been involved in Camp Fire USA, Boys &Girls Clubs of Snohomish County and the Puget Sound Blood Center. She and her husband lived in the Silver Lake area before moving to Hat Island after his retirement.

“She loved personal discourse,” Worthy said. “She was someone who was hungry for knowledge. There wasn’t a topic she would not discuss. And she was just such a genuine, caring and loyal friend.”

At the same time, she had a wicked sense of humor. Worthy remembered a Halloween party on Hat Island.

“I had the audacity to wear a ballerina costume,” Worthy said. “Cly walked up to me, a drink in hand, and said, ‘So, are you a boy ballerina or a girl ballerina?’ I made the mistake of not answering. But she had ways of finding out.”

Chalann Berg knew her as a Silver Lake neighbor while growing up. Cly and Dick Pouria played cards with Berg’s parents, Darrell and Denise Reid.

“She was this big, peppy person. She’d come to your house and pound on your door,” Berg said. At her wedding, Berg remembers Cly Pouria dancing with her manager from work. When Berg returned to her job at Nintendo after her honeymoon, her boss wondered who that woman had been. “He said he’d never had so much fun,” Berg said.

Asked for a favorite story, Dick Pouria reached back about 20 years.

“We were in Boston visiting my parents. We had taken her mother with us,” he said. They decided to bring live lobsters back on the plane for a dinner in Seattle with friends.

“The plane was going from Boston to Denver to Seattle,” he said. “Well, she and her mother got off in Denver and didn’t get back on; they stopped for a drink.

“I stayed on the plane. I didn’t know what to do with all these live lobsters. I ended up in Seattle with the lobsters. I would have loved to see her face when she saw the plane was gone.”

Jack Kelly said close friendships thrive on Hat Island. “With no restaurants and no stores, we spend our time visiting each others’ homes. And most of us go to the same neighborhood in Arizona,” he said.

Harry Schaler met the couple about 15 years ago on Hat Island, where he kept a boat. “We just clicked,” he said. “She was so loyal to other people.

“Whenever you saw her, it was, ‘Hi Harry, how are you?’ and a big hug. I always felt better when she came into a room.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.