Obituaries

Clayton Edward DoucetteInsurance Broker

Clayton Edward Doucette, 76, who was an insurance agent and broker for many years, died Aug. 19 at Greenfield of Stafford, an assisted living facility. He had dementia.

Mr. Doucette was born in Bingham, Maine, and came to the Washington area after high school. He served in the Army during the Korean War.

He spent many years as an insurance agent with Geico and other agencies, and he had his own insurance brokerage for several years before retiring in 1998 from Banner Life Insurance Co.

In January 1951, Mr. Doucette was severely wounded in combat near the Chosin Reservoir in one of the fiercest battles of the Korean War. He was hospitalized for more than 14 months and spent six months in a full-body cast. More than 50 years later, as he was going through old family papers, he found a telegram to his mother, dated Jan. 29, 1951, announcing that he had been "slightly injured in action in Korea."

"I sat there and stared at that for a minute before the words 'slightly injured' really sank in," Mr. Doucette told the Fredericksburg Star in 2004. "I wouldn't call something that put me in hospitals for 14 months a 'slight injury.' "

He filed an inquiry with the Army and was finally awarded a Purple Heart, presented to all military personnel wounded in action, nearly 53 years after he was injured.

Mr. Doucette, a longtime Stafford resident, was a Mason and a member of the Aquia Harbour Yacht Club in Stafford.

His first wife, Beverly A. Doucette, died in 1976.

Two daughters, Doreen M. Doucette and Debra A. Doucette, died in 1999 and 2007, respectively.

Survivors include his wife of 32 years, Sandie Doucette of Stafford; two daughters from his first marriage, Diane Doucette-Weiser and Dawn J. Doucette, both of Richmond; two stepchildren, Tami Maghan of Stafford and Greg Schumm of Fredericksburg; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson.