| Notes |
Buried:
- LULA HASTY CLARK
Lula Hasty was born in Moultrie, GA on November 20, 1918 and was the second child of Robert and Nettie Hasty. Shortly after she was born, Lula along with her parents, her older sister, Ruby, and her grandmother, Liza Scarborough, took the train and moved to Atlanta. After departing the train depot, they rode the street car to their new home and in a few days their mule and household goods arrived.
Lula’s family moved quite often while she was growing up, mostly back and forth between farms in the Douglas County area and Atlanta. She and her three sisters Ruby, Leila and Nona all attended Girl’s High School in Atlanta. However Lula was not able to graduate from school before the family made the permanent move to Douglas County.
Shortly after making that move and at an age of about 17 Lula met a young man by the name of Eugene Clark. Over the course of the next year or so Lula and her older sister Ruby double dated quite often during Gene’s courtship of Lula. Eventually Lula, at the age of 18, married Eugene Clark on December 12th, 1936. Initially Gene and Lula lived with the Clark family but they soon got a small house just a few miles away.
Lula and Gene’s first two children were born in that small home in Douglas County. Their oldest daughter, Lillian, was born on March 26th, 1938. Lula often recalled when Lillian would sing “There’s a Little Black Train a Coming†and rock in a rocking chair all day long. Their second daughter, Helen, was born on December 5, 1939 during the coldest winter on record in GA. Helen told me that she remembers the story about how Grandma had wrapped her up so thoroughly for a trip to the doctor that when they arrived and handed her over to the doctor for inspection the doctor opened the blankets expecting to find baby Helen’s face but instead he found her feet.
Around 1940, Lula’s father helped her and Gene build a house on North Avenue in Atlanta which they lived in for many years. There were many firsts at this address. The Clark family got their first indoor toilet in 1948 when a sewage line was put in down the street. They got their first telephone in about 1950 and some years after that the family got their first television.
While living on North Avenue, Lula and Gene had two more children. Carol, their third daughter, was born on June 5, 1942 at in the home on North Avenue and five years later their son Danny was born on November 6, 1947 in a hospital in Atlanta. The kids liked to play with their uncle and aunt, Bobby and Ginny, Lula’s youngest sibling who lived down the street. They played in a wonderful play area Lula made for them under the house by digging out all the dirt and putting in a sand box.
Near the end of World War II in 1945 Gene was drafted into service. He was fortunate to receive a job as a barber in Florida. Both Lillian and Helen remembered this time during their lives and going to school in Florida. Lillian was in 2nd grade, Helen in the 1st, and Carol was three years old and stayed at home with Lula.
One night on their way back to Georgia for Christmas, Gene slept while Lula drove. When he awoke, Gene questioned Lula as to why she was driving right down the center of the road. Lula replied, “Well it’s the middle of the night and no one is on the road and I’m getting us back to GA as fast as I can.†Later that same evening, they had a flat tire. When they lifted a package to retrieve the spare tire, the sound of “ma ma†came from the dolls that Lula had purchased at the PX for the girls. But when the girls questioned them about this noise, of course Lula and Gene hadn’t heard a thing.
Lula made sure her children went to church every Sunday and she worked hard to make all their clothes. She taught Sunday school and always worked in the week-long summer camp held at Hard Labor Creek State Park. At the camp, she worked double duty, as a counselor and being in charge of the kitchen. Everyone at camp quickly learned that she made the best biscuits in the world. Her family was already well aware of this talent and requested that she make them at all the family reunions. Lula loved to fix Sunday dinners for her family, often fixing a dozen or more dishes, and always her famous biscuits. Of course Marty and I like to refer to them as “skeet†biscuits because even though they were always delicious with hot butter and jelly on them the Frisbee sized ones tempted you to want to toss them into the air just to see if they would fly.
Lula was also a good seamstress. When Helen and Carol got married, she made all the attendants dresses and also planned and furnished all the refreshments for the weddings. One thing she didn’t plan on was the ice storm that occurred on the cold January day that Carol got married. Lula had to run hot water on the front steps of their North Avenue home just to get the bride out of the house. And then when she was setting up the refreshments, Lula discovered the punch she had picked up from Rich’s the night before was frozen solid and the glass containers had broken in the trunk of the car. But not to be outdone, Lula marched down to the A&P and bought Hawaiian punch and ginger ale and everybody thought it was wonderful!
In 1963, a few years after Helen and Carol were married, Lula, Gene, Lillian and Danny moved to a new home in East Point where Danny attended Headland High School. While living in East Point, Lula decided to finish high school also and received her GED at about age 55. In 1978 Danny got married and moved to Vermont.
Grandma Clark was a very selfless person, always wanting more for others than for herself. She was also a very thrifty wife as exemplified in this passage from Proverbs 31…
Proverbs 31: 10 ~ 22 & 30 ~ 31
10 Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is worth more than precious rubies.
11 Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. 12 She will not hinder him but help him all her life. 13 She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. 14 She is like a merchant's ship; she brings her food from afar. 15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls. 16 She goes out to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She is energetic and strong, a hard worker. 18 She watches for bargains; her lights burn late into the night. 19 Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. 20 She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy.
21 She has no fear of winter for her household because all of them have warm clothes. 22 She quilts her own bedspreads. She dresses like royalty in gowns of finest cloth
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised. 31 Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.
I certainly think Grandma Clark fits this description. A somewhat humorous example of this type of action on her part was the time Lula found a very nice lantern at the Good Will store. It was only missing a globe which certainly could be replaced and make a very nice piece for somebody that needed it. Upon showing it to Helen it became apparent that Grandma had bought the exact same lantern that Helen had recently donated to the Good Will since she could not find a matching globe for it as she had bought it originally in the PX when they lived in Germany. And of course as my mom and dad reminded me today there was the push-in / pull-out Christmas tree in the closet at Grandma’s which allowed her to decorate for Christmas in a moment.
In 1985, Lula and Gene, who were now both in their mid-sixties, decided to move to Mableton and Lula’s brother Bobby built them a new house. Even at their age Lula and Gene insisted on doing some of the work. They cleaned up the work site every day and did all the landscaping and lawn work.
One of the things they requested when the lot was graded was to have a large flat area for their garden. Lula and Gene were famous for raising tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, okra, mustard greens and much more. I’m sure many of you here have eaten vegetables from their garden.
In 1986, Lillian, Helen, Carol and Danny held a very nice 50th Anniversary dinner for their parents even though Lula objected and said, “who would come to such a thing?†She was quite surprised at the turnout and how everyone had tales to tell about their friend and relative Lula.
As they got older, Lula, Gene and Lillian had a regular routine of visiting Ruby and Lowell on Tuesdays each week at the McDonalds in Douglasville. This time together meant a lot to Lula. They would often return to Ruby’s house and talk the day away.
During the nineties, Gene became ill with Alzheimer’s disease and Lula tried very hard to take care of him at home. After many years of dealing with the hardships of the disease she had to put Gene in a nursing home. Her husband of 60 years passed away on February 25, 1998, shortly after his 81st birthday.
Lula and Lillian continued their visits to Ruby’s house, until Lula had a stroke in 2001 after which she was unable to get around. Lula was able to live out the last five years of her life at home with excellent care provided by Marie and Lina. Unfortunately last June we lost Lillian, Lula’s oldest daughter to her fight with Cancer. In the final year of Lula’s life, she loved to sit in her sun room and sing hymns with Lina.
It is wonderful to know that we have all come here today to celebrate the life of Lula “Grandma†Clark. She was indeed a wonderful person to know and in my mind a servant to others in all that she did. As I know she worked hard for her family in the early days I personally saw how she would work tirelessly whenever the family came to visit her in her home.
Many of my fondest memories are the days when they lived in the house in East Point where we would all get together on a Sunday afternoon to eat fresh vegetables, skeet biscuits, and strawberry cake (although Carol remembers a lemon cake, Tommy the coconut and Debbie the chocolate). My mom recently told me how nobody knows for sure how she made many of her wonderful dishes and desserts since she did most of it from scratch without a written recipe. We would watch the Braves on an old black and white TV, swing on the old rickety metal glider sofa on the back porch while we would check out all the ceramic molds and partially completed projects that Helen and Grandma had been working on. We would throw the football in the backyard with Uncle Danny and Grandpa and check out the greens in his garden at the back of the lot. After a big meal we would play cards around the dining room table and some of us would even dare to taste the coffee and chicory that she would brew.
To me Grandma, Grandpa, and Lillian made up their own family unit just like the rest of us. We all loved them dearly and they will always live in our hearts with fond memories. And although he could not be with us today, Danny was able to spend 3 weeks with her in July and we are fortunate to have Diana with us here today. Grandma passed away early this past Saturday morning with both Helen and Carol by her side.
We love you Grandma, you will be greatly missed, but I know you are now in a place in the presence of the Lord so much better than any of us can imagine.
Died:
- LULA H. CLARK, 87, of Mableton died Saturday. Funeral, 11 a.m. Monday, Castellaw Funeral Home.
Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 8/6/2006.
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RNT Family History
1918 - 2006 (87 years)