Amelia E.E. Clark

Mrs. Amelia E. E. Clark passed away on March 8, 2016 after a brief illness. She was born Amelia Emma Etta Shafer on March 2, 1920 in Oakland, Kansas and was the oldest of three children of Rolland Earnest Shafer and his wife Emma Margaret Endrich Shafer. She grew up on farms near Oakland and in the Oakland community. Her paternal grandfather Charles Shafer was a leader in the effort to convince the voters of the City of Oakland in 1926 to vote against becoming part of the City of Topeka. The friendships she made growing up in Oakland would last for life. She was a 1935 graduate of Holliday Junior High School and a 1938 graduate of Topeka High School.

Her first job while still in school was as a helper at the Oakland Drugstore. Her first paycheck was for five dollars for two weeks work. After graduating high school she worked at Morell's in Topeka. During the Second World War she had to leave Morell's and go to work at Ripley's Cleaners when it became necessary for her to be able to go home at lunchtime to take care of her bedridden mother. One of her job duties was the worst of any that a civilian employee could have to do during wartime. It was her job to go and bring employees off of the work floor to the company office when a telegram from the War Department would come telling them that their family member had been killed. From all the times she had to do this she developed an absolute abhorrence of war. She would often tell her children that she would rather go through another depression than another war. Working at Ripley's was not all bad. At the time she was working at Ripley's Little Jimmy Dickens was working at a local radio station and she often had the pleasure of waiting on him when he came in to drop off or pick up his cleaning. She would always smile in later years when his name was mentioned. Amelia quit working after the birth of her first child. She returned to work in 1974. She worked for the State of Kansas department of S.R.S. before transferring to the Corporation Commission and finally working for the Department of Transportation. She retired from the State in 1986.

She was united in marriage to Walter Tyner Clark on November 15, 1945 at her parents' home in Topeka. This marriage would last fifty-four years until his death on August 3, 2000. Their marriage would produce four children, Donald Walter born in 1948, Deborah Sue stillborn in 1957, Gerald Dean in 1958, and Karen Lynne in 1961. Amelia and Walter had a full life together raising their children, taking care of their parents, and traveling around the United States whenever they got the chance. They enjoyed boating, card parties with their friends, and family gatherings. They belonged to Topeka Moose Lodge #555. Amelia also belonged to the Oakland Rebecca Lodge. She delighted in her three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents Rolland Ernest Shafer and Emma Margaret Endrich Shafer, her sister Isabella Ruth Shafer Worthington, her sister Charlotte Christina Shafer Glenn, her daughter Deborah Sue Clark, and her husband Walter Tyner Clark. She is survived by her son Donald Walter Clark and his wife Sandra of Marietta, Georgia, her son Gerald Dean Clark and his wife Andrea of Topeka, Kansas, her daughter Karen Lynne Clark of Overland Park, Kansas, three grandchildren Tad Clark, Tara Clark, Gretchen Bradley, and four great-grandchildren Joshua Clark, Ashley Clark, Odin Bradley, and Allison Clark. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren are all of Georgia.

Visitation will be at 10:00 am with funeral services to begin at 11:00 am Saturday, March 19, 2016 at Penwell-Gabel Mid-Town Chapel. Burial will follow at Rochester Cemetery. Amelia will lie in state from 3:00 pm until 8:00 pm Friday at the funeral home.