Small Town News

Council member Clark, 88, dies

---

De Witt's longest-serving Alderman, NJ Clark, 88, died Aug.24.

He was born March 22, 1922, on his family farm near Ethel, the oldest of six children.

Clark's family worked a farm around the Ethel Community. He attended a segregated school at Claybon Chapel, then at Immanuel High School. Between school terms, he worked 26 days a month plowing fields for 50 cents a day. He was attending the black agriculture school in Brinkley when World War II broke out and he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving most of his time as a mail courier with the 849th Signal Corps. After the war, he attended Arkansas Agricultural Mechanical and Normal College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff).

After earning his teachers' degree, Clark taught and served at the Colored school at Hopewell After integration, he became a teacher at St. Charles High School. "There was some talk [in the early days of integration] about when the black kids got off the bus, they would be killed," Clark said.
"That was just tough talk. The first day the white kids lined up on each side and blacks had to walk between them, They were scared but the superintendent cal med things down. "They didn't expect our kids to come up equal to while kids. After the first nine weeks, [no one] could tell the difference. But when that time came, the kids were equal in grades; some even better. That picked me up. I knew we had some pretty sharp kids. They had been instructed very well at Immanuel."

Clark served as St. Charles High School principal from 1983-85, when it consolidated with the DeWitt School District.

"We had about 200 kids in St. Charles, but then [the enrollment] got down to around 160," Clark said in an interview in 2006. "That's what caused us to loose the school."

Clark was first appointed to the DeWitt City Council to fill a vacancy in the Ward 1, Position 1 seat in the summer of 1978. He was elected to the position in November 1978 and served on the Council until his death.

DeWitt City Clerk Liz Ferguson remembered that she and Clark had arrived at the same time, in May 1978. "We've been through the same number of mayors, aldermen, city attorneys," she said. Throughout his long career on the council, "I don't think he ever had more than two opponents in al1 that time.," Ferguson recalled.

Ferguson described Clark as "always very fair and he always watched out for his ward." Deputy Clerk Leila Bell added, "when you talked, [Clark] always listened to you."

Mayor Aubrey McGhee said Clark was a "very fair individual. He spoke softly but with a lot of thought. He was a good man and will be dearly missed."

Christina Verderosa and former DeWitt Era-Enterprise intern Larry Burge contributed to this article.



Copyright 2010 DeWitt Era-Enterprise, DeWitt, Arkansas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 DeWitt Era-Enterprise DeWitt, Arkansas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from DeWitt Era-Enterprise