Sophrona Aveline ELZEY CLARK

May 24, 1852 - October 3, 1929

*Obituary (as written)
Benton County Record & Democrat & Sun
October 10, 1929

CLARK, Saphronia Aveline ELZEY - Funeral services for Mrs. Saphronia Aveline Elzey Clark, aged 77 years and four months, widow of the late William R. Clark, who died at her home on A Street, N.W. Thursday afternoon, October 3rd after a brief illness, were held Saturday afternoon at the Bentonville Methodist Episcopal Church, South of which she had been a consistent and active member the greater part of her life. Services for Mrs. Clark were conducted by the pastor, The Rev. R.S. Hayden, assisted by the Rev. A.W. Henderson, pastor of the local Presbyterian Church. Many beautiful flowers expressed the love and esteem in which Mrs. Clark was held by relatives and friends. Among the relatives and friends paying her this last tribute were the members of the Jas. H. Berry Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, who attended the funeral in a body. Interment was made in the Bentonville cemetery beside her husband and other relatives. A daughter of those sturdy pioneers of Northwest Arkansas, Benjamin Rice Elzey and Elizabeth Elzey, Mrs. Clark was born here in Bentonville May 24th, 1852, living most of her life here. For a time prior to her marriage she lived with a brother at Sherman, Texas where she was a member of the faculty of the Kidd-Key College, one of the best known and highest rated of Southern schools for women. After her marriage she and her husband and his children lived at Pawnee, Okla. for a few years when both were connected with the Government Indian school located there. A few years ago Mr. and Mrs. Clark moved to Spokane, Wash. where one of his sons lives and while they enjoyed their stay in the Northwest thoroughly they returned to Bentonville some three years ago, delighted to again be among their Arkansas friends and old neighbors. When only 13 years of age Mrs. Clark became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, being among the earliest member of the Bentonville church, of which W.R. Clark, who later became her husband, and his mother, Mrs. Jane Clark, well remembered pioneer woman of this section, were both charter members. So long as her health and strength permitted and until shortly before the end, she attended all services of her church, including the mid-week prayer services. In 1890 she married William R. Clark whose first wife was her sister. The youngest of the eight children left by her sister at her death was only six years of age when Mrs. Clark came into the home as mother and aunt. To all the children Mrs. Clark at once became a real mother and as devoted to them and as self-sacrificing in their behalf as if she had been their own mother. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark were imbued with the spirit of real hospitality and neighborliness and there are today in Bentonville many who gratefully remember courtesies shown them by this couple in the Clark home and otherwise. Mr. Clark died here in April 1927. Mrs. Clark is survived by one sister, Mrs. Ara Dickson of Bentonville; two brothers, Sterling Price Elzey of South Arkansas and Rice Elzey of Everett, Wash.; and four step-children, Mrs. Frank B. Freeman of Tulsa, Okla.; Robert J. Clark of Joplin, Mo.; Mrs. Frank Lineman, who lives in California and Chas. T. Clark of Spokane, Washington. Among the out-of-town relatives coming to Bentonville on account of Mrs. Clark's illness and death were two of the step-children, Mrs. Freeman and R.J. Clark and wife.

Contributed on 7/24/12 by wfields55
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Record #: 732092

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