Viola Clark’s secret to a long life wasn’t really a secret at all, family members said. She ate healthy foods, kept her mind active and lived a simple life.
“She fixed her vegetables fresh, not out of a can,” said Montine Clark, her daughter-in-law who lives in Monroe. “She used to grow and can all of her own veggies, but when she stopped, she still bought her produce fresh and fixed it up herself.”
Mrs. Clark never smoked or drank, and every Sunday morning she was able, you could find her at church: first for church school and then worship service, said the Rev. Dr. Hannah Garrett Johnson, pastor of Crossroads United Methodist Church.
“She was a sweet and spunky woman,” the pastor said. “She told her family things like, ‘If you could just get the mean out of you, you’ll be OK,’ and that defined her in a lot of ways. She was very kind.”
Viola Bradford Clark, of Monroe, died Saturday at Park Place Nursing Home, from complications of pneumonia. She was 100. A funeral service was held Tuesday and her body was buried at Green Meadow Memorial Gardens.
Mrs. Clark grew up in Milstead, a cotton mill town near Conyers. When she was 18 she married Curtis B. Clark, and the two sharecropped for a few years during the Great Depression until Mr. Clark got a job at the cotton mill. The couple eventually had two children, and they were married for more than 51 years when Mr. Clark died in 1980.
Ray Crowe remembers his older sister as a woman who loved her family, and worked hard. When Mrs. Clark married, Mr. Crowe was 5-years-old and he grew up with her two children.
“I lived with her about as much as I lived with my mother,” Mr. Crowe said. “And she took real good care of me. Real good.”
Though Mrs. Clark never went to college, she was an avid reader. Even in her later years she would read books all day and up until bedtime, said her daughter-in-law, who was her caretaker for several years.
Rev. Johnson said Mrs. Clark was an independent spirit, who endured the joys and sorrows of living a long life.
“She had a wonderful, joyful spirit, but everything wasn’t always easy for her,” the pastor said. “She buried her husband and both of her children, and I know those things hurt her, but she had a persevering spirit that helped her carry on.”
Mrs. Clark is also survived by another granddaughter, Donna Clark Elrod of Douglasville; and three great-grandchildren, Shane Benefield of Canton, Brantley Yeater of Monroe and Eli Yeater of Monroe.
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