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Dependable mother Clifford Earles dies just shy of 109
0119Clifford Earles
Earles
Clifford Earles was days shy of turning 109 when she died Tuesday afternoon.Her son Wilton Earles, of Gainesville, said the family didn’t anticipate they would be celebrating.“We had not prepared a special birthday because she seemed to be declining in her health more,” he said.The younger Earles, at 79, is one of two surviving children of Clifford’s five boys and two daughters. He is named after his father, who died in 1947.“She was very dependable,” he said of his mother. “With very little education, she took care of five boys and two girls.