An Omro, Wisconsin, Decoy Carver
A Decoy Corner Article
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
Photos courtesy Wisconsin Sporting Collectibles
Lemke Blackduck
Clarence Lemke was born, raised and lived most of his life in the Milwaukee area. His passion was hunting and fishing and all that came along with that sport. He was born in 1905 during the depression and found that he needed to rely on the land to provide for his needs. Clarence had a hunting shack in the Winnebago Lakes area and he duck hunted on Lake Butte des Morts with his friends from Rivermoor. One good friend, Ron Koch, explained that Clarence’s nickname of “speed” did not come from his efficiency or quickness… rather the opposite!
Lemke decoys
Clarence began decoy carving later in life but was also a skilled woodworker, building beautiful gunstocks and flat bottom skiffs. Speed’s output in decoys was low, probably in the hundreds. He used a unique process to carve his decoy bodies using four one-inch pine boards cut the shape of the body with the center two boards cut out according to his own pattern, so the decoy was hollow when the boards were glued together. When glued together, he had very little rasping to do to shape the body. His heads were also carved from two-inch thick pine and attached to the body with a dowel. He used glass eyes in his heads, which were placed well forward on the head, almost to the bill! Clarence painted his decoys with oil house paint in block fashion, with little shading or blending, but his speculums were quite colorful. Some of his “tip up” decoys were scratch painted to simulate feathers.
Lemke mallard
Clarence carved bluebills, mallards, pintails, redheads, black ducks and some canvasbacks and mud hens (coot). He carved full size decoys through the 1930’s and ’40’s, then began carving quarter-size decoys later in life.
Clarence retired to his Omro cottage in the last few years of his life, where he carved and tied fishing flies for local sports. Clarence passed away in 1983 at the age of 78. His decoys are now in high demand, particularly by Wisconsin collectors, and they are valued high because of his limited production.
Clarence R. “Speed” Lemke, a true Wisconsin original decoy carver, sportsman and woodworker!