In 1973, Betty Jean Clark was said to be the youngest woman -- and youngest black woman -- ever elected to a state legislature when she joined the Georgia House of Representatives.
After her victory, the DeKalb Democrat appeared on a Macon stage with the Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, or Rev. Ike. Mrs. Clark testified that the late evangelist's ideas on blessings and success helped her campaign.
"I proved that Rev. Ike is right when he says, ‘You can't lose with the stuff I use,' " according to a flier that promoted the "healing and blessing meeting" held at the Macon Coliseum. "It worked for me."
Mrs. Clark suffered from peripheral arterial disease, which is when arteries in the leg narrow or clog with fat. The legislator died Thursday from complications of the disease at Atlanta Medical Center. She was 67.
A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Donald Trimble Mortuary Inc. of Decatur.
Mrs. Clark graduated from Howard High (1964) and the Atlanta Area Technical School (1969). She was employed as a secretary for Scripto when, inspired by her second husband, the late Rev. Ted Clark, chose to seek office, said a sister, Margerine Harper of Ellenwood.
"We all were very proud of her at that particular time," she said. "No one in our family had ever thought of doing a thing like that, but he was involved and he wanted her to be involved as well."
The Atlanta native represented District No. 55 from 1973 to 1990. She lost her seat to Nadine Thomas.
In 1985, she was tapped to chair the Human Relations and Aging committee, an appointment that, at the time, was considered a plum for female legislators.
"It was significant because it puts a woman in a ‘leadership' position," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. "When all the House leaders get together to decide how the House will operate, I'm on the inside and have input on how things should be done."
In 1985, she called the mayor of Claxton a "racist redneck" when he announced there were no citywide plans to honor the brand new Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. She then announced plans to introduce a bill the following year ordering the state to deny funds to any school board, city or county government that refused to observe the King holiday.
In 1987, she alienated AIDS advocacy groups when she proposed a bill that would require anyone who knows they have AIDS, or the AIDS virus, to notify health professionals who treat them for other reasons.
A year after she left office, the politician claimed self-defense when she shot and killed her first husband, John Davis Odoms, in her southeast Atlanta home. An Atlanta city judge dismissed a murder charge.
Additional survivors include an adopted son, Kelly Curry of Glenville; two brothers, Reuben Ransom Jr. of Decatur and Robert Lee Ransom, address unknown; three sisters, Eva Mae McCracklin of Decatur; Mary Louise Curry and Beverly Ann Ransom, both of Atlanta.
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