Audrey P Clark's Obituary
Audrey Powell Clark, 91, passed away July 22, 2021, in Lewisville. She was born December 27, 1929, in Bay City, TX. to Vogt and Audrey Clement Powell.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Powell family of six lived in several small towns along the South Texas Gulf Coast, settling in 1938 in Palacios, Texas, where Audrey and her two brothers and sister went to local schools for nine years, the longest time that the family stayed in one place during her childhood.
In 1946, Vogt Powell, at the time a civilian auditor for the US Army, was transferred to a base in Okinawa. The family followed in February 1947, midterm of Audrey’s senior year in high school. As a result, she received two diplomas: one from the Army Dependents School, the other (in absentia) from Palacios High School.
After graduation, she worked briefly as a clerk in the Army Signal Corps office, then left her family on Okinawa and returned by ship, rail, and bus to Texas, where she enrolled at Texas A&I College in Kingsville. 1950 was a landmark year: within two weeks, she graduated from college (B.A., majoring in English) on August 25; married Norman V. Clark on September 1; and began her teaching career on September 5 in Corpus Christi, TX.
After teaching one year in Corpus Christi and a second year in Kingsville, she “retired” to raise a family. The “mommy years” were filled with Campfire Girls, Cub Scouts, Sunday School, chicken pox and measles—and for each child, that first day of school. Audrey sang in the church choir, sewed costumes for school programs, and went to school part time, working on her Master’s degree. She also taught English 101 as a Teaching Assistant at A&I for two semesters while earning her M.A.
She finished her degree just as their youngest child was ready to start first grade. During the next twenty years-following Norman in executive transfers for Celanese Chemical Company-Audrey taught in high schools and community colleges in Kingsville, Houston, Corpus Christi, the University of Houston, Fort Bend County, and (after Norman’s last business transfer to the Dallas area) at Berkner High School in Richardson, Richland College, and the Greenhill School. When she retired from the public schools in 1985, she didn’t stop teaching: she began classes for adults: memoirs, family history, and creative writing.
After retiring, Norman and Audrey enjoyed traveling to Europe, Africa, and Australia/New Zealand, as well as from coast to coast in the US and Canada. She loved to read, sew, play bridge, and write fiction. They got together with long-time friends at high school and college reunions, and they enjoyed their family, especially their grandchildren Emma and Sam Griffin.
Audrey is preceded in death by her parents; her husband Norman; brother, Navy Captain William V. Powell, ret.; nephew, Thom Clark, and her in-laws, Virgil and Edith Clark.
Survivors - Sister, Dorothy Janitch of Monroe City, MO.; brother, Bob Powell of Bedminster, NJ.; son, Richard A. Clark, of Fort Worth; daughters, Terry G. Clark of Lewisville, and Lee Anne Griffin (husband Stephen) of Guatemala; grandchildren, Sam Griffin of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN., Emma Griffin Wedel (husband Jake); great grand-daughters, Harper and Wren of Oklahoma City, OK. Also surviving are her brother and sister in law Weldon B. and Dorothy K. Clark; and niece, Jean Ann Clark of Burnet, TX.
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