Los Angeles
County
Biographies
ELYSABETH
LOUISE CLARKE
Among
the public-spirited women of Los Angeles, few are better known than Mrs.
Elysabeth Louis Clarke, who is connected with many organizations and lines of
effort for the practical promotion of civic betterment. She was born at Hudson, Wisconsin, the daughter
of Almeron LaMotte and Louise (Stowell)
Clarke. They had three children: Francis B., who is an attorney in San
Francisco; Herbert W., an orchardist near Sacramento; and Elysabeth Louise. The progenitor of the family in America
arrived in the The Ann in 1623, and the line of
descendants has not been broken by one foreign intermarriage. There are several coats of arms in the
family, which is of French, English and Scotch-Irish descent. Mrs. Clarke’s parents came to Los Angeles in
1888, and soon after arrival, A. L. Clarke, who had been a banker in the east,
founded Fairview, Orange County, although he continued to maintain his
residence in Los Angeles. He was a
thirty-second degree Mason, and a leader in every forward-looking movement,
political, social or economic. He died
in Orange County in 1893, at the age of forty-eight years, and the widow passed
away five years later at the same age.
Elysabeth
Louise Clarke began her elementary education in Chicago. Later she graduated from the Los Angeles
Normal School and from Mills College at Oakland, and for five years taught in
the public schools of Los Angeles. In
1903 Elysabeth Louise Clarke was married to George Herbert Clarke, who passed
away September 20, 1931. Mr. and Mrs.
Clarke had two daughters, Georgia Louise and Catharine Constance. While the children were young, Mrs. Clarke
found her time and thought fully occupied with the privileges of
motherhood. Idolized as a mother by the
children of her own family, she found a warm place in the hearts of all their
young friends by reason of the youth and buoyancy of her own spirits, which met
theirs in eager understanding and response.
As the children grew older she again engaged in public affairs, and as
the field of her activities broadened she has become one of the leaders for
civic and moral betterment. For many
years a member of the First Congregational Church, she has served or led in
nearly every department of its activities, as well as in the state organizations
with which it is connected. Mrs. Clarke
served as a successful Four-Minute speaker for Liberty Bonds in the district
between Santa Barbara and San Diego, and as a worker in the local chapter of
the Red Cross.
Long
a member of the board of directors of the Young Women’s Christian Association,
Mrs. Clarke has for several years been chairman of its International Institute,
which serves foreign women and girls.
Mrs. Clarke served as chairman of a group of white women acting as an
affiliation committee with the board of directors of the Colored Y. W. C. A.,
in whose work and problems she had the most vital interest. No less keen was her interest in, and concern
for, the success and progress of the Japanese Y. W. C. A., in which through her
work with the International Institute she took an active part.
The
welfare and betterment of child life ever lying closest to her heart, Mrs.
Clarke found congenial service on the directorates of the Child Guidance
Clinic, Mental Hygiene Society of Southern California, Child Placing Society,
Crippled Children’s Guild, and Camp Fire Girls.
She was active in behalf of suffrage at the time when the cause was
unpopular. She is a director of the
Community Welfare Federation, and a director of the National Association of
Community Organizations. She was one of
the active organizers of the “Community Chest,” giving service of high value in
promoting understanding between the Social Agencies and the Chamber of Commerce
committee, which was charged with sponsoring the Chest, and she is today one of
its most enthusiastic and valued supporters.
Perhaps, however, the most valuable
service Mrs. Clarke has given the community is as a member of the board of
education, where she is chairman of the teachers and schools committee,
together with much other committee service.
Broad-minded, with a clear conception of her duty, Mrs. Clarke while a teacher
had won the confidence of pupils and parents by her thoroughness and
fair-mindedness, and by the winning personality which enabled her not only to
teach the children under her charge the required courses, but to stimulate
their minds and awaken in them a genuine desire for knowledge. She is, therefore, able to bring to the
questions coming before the board of education not only general ability and
broad experience, but the light of intimate knowledge of school conditions and
educational needs.
In a person like Mrs. Clarke, highly
educated, cultured, and thoroughly modern, a clear and independent thinker,
with high moral standards, and with the added advantage of practical teaching
experience, the board has an ideal member.
Blest with perfect physical health, she has that gift of the gods, a
vivid and vivacious personality, coupled with rare graciousness and charm of
manner, which birth, education and travel alone can give; these qualities make
the role of hostess an easy and favorite one, and find her equally at home
among her foreign friends or those of her own birth and breeding. Youth is not a period of years; it is a state
of mind, a vigor of the emotions that has not lessened the deep sources of the
soul. Judged by this test Mrs. Clarke is
perennially young; her life is not one merely of “activity” but of “living,”
enjoying the richness of each day as it unfolds.
This sketch, taken largely from
“California and Californians,” briefly outlines some of the activities of its
subject, shows a conception of civic responsibility exceptionally broad and
comprehensive. With a personality that
wins supporters to any cause she may advocate, while she is unsparing of her
own efforts, Elysabeth Louise Clarke is a natural leader, and takes a
commanding place in any movement she espouses.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 635-638,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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