Mary Clark

Mrs. Mary Evelyn Smith Clark, 88, of Romulus, Michigan formerly of Rowan County, Kentucky, passed away November 29, 2008.

She was born on July 29, 1920 in Haldeman (Rowan County), Kentucky, a daughter of the late Marion Anderson and Ada Susan Lands Smith.

After graduating from Haldeman High School as the Class of 1938 salutatorian, she attended Morehead State Teachers College before marrying Harlen Nathaniel "Casey" Clark on July 21, 1940. In 1959, she earned an associate's degree in commercial arts from Yankton Business College in South Dakota.

Mary held many different jobs over the years. As a teenager, she was the first girl in Haldeman to have a daily newspaper route. During her senior year in high school, she worked for a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program known as the Pack Horse Library, which delivered reading materials to rural Kentucky residents who had no access to public library facilities. (Despite the program's name, Mary covered her route's many miles on foot.) She also performed various duties at school, including work for her English teacher/mentor, Hildreth Maggard, who instilled in her a lifelong love of learning.

As an adult, Mary was variously employed as a salesperson, clerk, bookkeeper, secretary, and office manager. She also worked a number of jobs in the entertainment industry, including acting as a talent agent for radio and stage performers from WVLK-AM (Versailles a�" 1940 to 1950), as well as doing publicity work and booking national country-music performers for her husband's Detroit-based Lazy Ranch Boys Barn Dance, which aired on stations like WJR-AM and CKLW-TV from 1954 to 1958. Most recently, she applied another of her talents a�" writing a�" to the world of local journalism, reporting for the Metro Detroit publications Country in the City News and The Romulus News.

Of all Mary's various careers, the one that she called her "greatest joy" was being a wife, mother, and grandmother. At family gatherings, surrounded by generations of descendants, she would look around, beaming with pride, and joke, "Just look at all these people who wouldn't be here if it weren't for me!"

Mary was a passionate patriot, a prolific poet, and a songwriter with several recordings to her credit. She also loved reading, using her extraordinary "green thumb" to garden and grow houseplants, and rooting for her beloved University of Kentucky "Wildcats" basketball team.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her step-father, William R. Blevins, her husband, Harlen Nathaniel "Casey" Clark, two sons, Billy Clark and Michael Clark, two brothers, Bill Smith and Robert "Toodle" Smith, one sister, Jalaina Smith and a great-grandson.

Survivors include two daughters and a son-in-law, Evelyn Atkins of Romulus, Michigan and Danny and Carol Cox of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, two brothers, Jack Smith of Morehead and Charles Blevins of South Rockwood, Michigan, one sister, Marian Hunt of Garden City, Michigan, eleven grandchildren, twenty-one great-grandchildren, six step-great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandson and one step-great-great grandson.

A memorial service will be held at 1:00 P.M. Saturday, May 23, 2009 at the Haldeman Church of God with Pastor Donnie Rivers officiating. Burial of cremains will be in the Clark Family Cemetery at Solider.

Memorial contributions to Boys Town (which Mary supported for more than 60 years) or any charitable organization would be greatly appreciated by the family.

Lane-Stucky-Gray Funeral Home is caring for local arrangements.