Teresa "Terre" Klipsch

Teresa “Terre” Claire Klipsch peacefully transitioned into pure spirit surrounded by her loving family on August 25, 2023 after surgical complications at the University of Iowa Hospitals.

Terre was born June 2, 1949 in Muscatine, IA to Lindolph “Lindy” and Betty (Hoffman) Mueller. When Terre was seven her family moved to St. Louis, MO, where her love of riding horses, athletics, and creating art and music began. She graduated from McCluer High School in 1967 and went on to attend Southwest Missouri State University where she competed in gymnastics, studied physical education, and met her best friend and love of her life, Frank Joseph Klipsch III.

Frank and Terre married on August 7, 1970, between their junior and senior years of college. They graduated in 1971, packed up Terre’s baby blue Ford Mustang pulling a small U-Haul, and headed south to Tucson, AZ where Terre—always a breaker of cultural norms—became the first elementary school physical education teacher in the state of Arizona.

Frank and Terre loved exploring, camping, and hiking across the southwest and shared many adventures that led to a lifelong fondness of the region. It was there that the couple began their careers with the YMCA and started a women’s gymnastics program with 300 young women. While coaching, teaching, and creating lifelong friendships, Terre also began her career in aerobics and personal training and pursued her love of equestrianism well into the third trimester of her first pregnancy.

Terre gave birth to Frank Joseph Klipsch IV in October of 1976. A passionate, loving, and devoted mother from the very first moment, Frankie could often be found in a crib set up at the gym surrounded by doting young gymnasts while his parents coached.

In 1979 Frank, Terre, and Frankie moved to Naperville, IL. No matter where she landed, Terre shared her love and knowledge with others with great joy. In Naperville, Terre became a doula and childbirth educator, supporting countless young mothers and publishing a book on the subject. She also began a series of women’s fitness camps that profoundly impacted others. She and Frank welcomed Jake Mueller Klipsch in June of 1979, followed soon thereafter by Zachary Edward Klipsch in September of 1981.

Always open to—and enamored by—the world and new adventures, Terre and Frank moved their family to Roswell, NM in 1984 to continue their Y career. In 1986, Kaitlin Rae Klipsch was born at home assisted by a midwife with her brothers and dad looking on.

In 1987 the family of six moved to Davenport, IA. In the decades since, Terre made a profound impact on the Quad Cities through her constant love and service. She was a physical fitness expert who shared her joy of fitness and people at the downtown YMCA, and she traveled the country teaching other personal trainers and giving fitness workshops. She was a bodybuilder and a triathlete. As the years of physical fitness took a toll, Terre, ever the Renaissance woman, embraced her incredible talents as a fiber artist. She was an expert seamstress who created custom clothing for her children and grandchildren and won prestigious awards for her quilts. She shared her talent generously and made many friends at every turn. She constantly found beauty in the world and expressed her own through painting, sewing, singing, writing songs and poetry, and playing the guitar and piano.

Terre’s love for the world and the people in it could not be contained. She moved to Davenport with four children, but through the years she became the mother of many. She and Frank took great joy in being a family to anyone who might need one and they shared their blessings extravagantly with others. Holidays were a parade of people they loved and who loved them. Mother’s Day was a series of phone calls from young people that Terre poured her love and support into. Many had even lived in the Klipsch household; all were so loved by her.

Her ten grandchildren were her great joy. Each one was immediately consumed by their Ruby/Mimi in pure love and adoration. She created art with them and made music with them. She taught them to lift weights, give hugs, share love, and stand up for justice. Her legacy will endure.

Terre is preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her husband and best friend of 53 years, Frank, and their children: Frank IV and his children Cassius and Julius; Jake and Leslie and their children Oliver, Elihu, and Sintayheu; Zach and Tesi and their children Trysten, Tomas, Tariku, Dailah, and Binyam; Kaitlin and Sy; and her sister, Natalie Wortman.

There will be a visitation on Tuesday, August 29th from 4pm–8pm and a funeral service at 11am on Wednesday, August 30th. Both will take place at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport. Halligan-McCabe-DeVries assisted the family with arrangements. Terre’s lifelong commitment to social justice, women, and equality can be honored with a memorial to the Equal Justice Initiative (122 Commerce St., Montgomery, AL 36104) or Argrow’s House of Healing and Hope (2313 44th St., Moline, IL 61265) in lieu of flowers. Please wear red to her visitation and funeral. It was her favorite color.