Judge Claire Louise Borengasser

Judge Claire Louise Borengasser, 71, a longtime resident and well-known figure in Fort Smith legal circles, passed away surrounded by her family on October 12, 2023, at her home in Fayetteville. Born on March 20, 1952, Claire’s parents were Sigmund Jake and Elizabeth “Betty” McCulloch Borengasser. Claire was an accomplished artist, who in 1975 earned a bachelor’s degree in art at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and in 1987 was awarded a juris doctorate at the law school there. But most of all, Claire will forever be remembered by her many friends and loving family as someone with a great sense of humor, an unmatchable generosity for how she conducted herself with other people and an unflinching dedication to her family.

Claire served for nine years as a deputy prosecutor and eight years as a deputy public defender for the Sixth Arkansas Judicial District in Sebastian County. She was then named the first full-time prosecuting attorney for the City of Fort Smith. In 2008, she was elected judge of the Fort Smith division of the Sixth Judicial District where she served for the next eleven years. In her career as a prosecutor and public defender, during which she participated and many times was lead counsel in hundreds of bench petitions and jury trial , Claire took special interest in cases involving child abuse wherein she endeavored to seek justice not only for these children but future victims of such crimes. She served as a charter member of the Child Abuse Prevention Team, which actively works in the community to protect children from abuse and neglect, and helped to start the Restore Hope Program, in which defendants can choose to undergo counseling and education programs in lieu of jail time to turn their lives around and reduce the chance of repeat offenses. On June 1, 2022, soon after she was diagnosed with cancer, Claire retired from the bench. Of her eleven years as a judge, she said “I tried to be impartial and open-minded and respectful and patient with all persons in and out of the courtroom. I endeavored to treat each person how I would want to be treated. Yet I also had to show courage in my decisions, not bending to political or social pressures, and to use common sense in and out of the courtroom.”

All her life, Claire was known as a “hardworking girl”. She and her brother and five sisters lived on South “N” Street and, when they were of school age, walked to classes at Christ The King Elementary School. In time each of them also worked at the family’s well-known local businesses, the “Borengasser’s Color Clinic” on Towson Avenue and “SJB Paint Factory” at Wheeler Avenue and South Y Street. Claire had an eye for color and her specialty at the paint factory was using the company’s formulas to match paint for customers and manufacture fifty-five gallon barrels of paint. For a time when her father became ill, she also managed the businesses. Life for the family wasn’t all work and no play. Many fun weekends through those years were spent hiking and cooking out at a cabin that Claire’s parents bought near Rudy. Claire continued her education at St. Anne’s Catholic High School and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where she studied under popular surrealism artist Donald Roller Wilson. She later accepted many private commissions, as well as rendering oil and water color paintings of her family that have become treasured keepsakes. Having also earned a teaching certificate, Claire taught math classes Darby Junior High School before deciding eventually to attend law school.

Claire will be dearly missed and forever remembered by her daughter, Brigit Dollar, of Fayetteville, her son, daughter-in-law and precious grandchild, Nick, Kim and Lennox Dollar of Fayetteville, brother, Sigmund Borengasser Jr. of Fort Smith, her five sisters, Ann Borengasser of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Janie Hentschel of Fort Smith, Colleen Baker and her husband, Robert, of Houston, Texas, Brenda Zodrow and her husband, David of Fayetteville, and Sarah Vestrat and her husband, Glenn, and son, Douglas, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and many nieces and nephews.

Rosary Service will be 10:00 am Tuesday, October 24, 2023. Followed by the Memorial Mass at 10:30 am, at Christ the King Catholic Church. Cremation is under the direction of Edwards Funeral Home.