LaVerne Harrell Clark

LaVerne Harrell Clark LaVerne Harrell Clark, born June 6, 1929to James Boyce Harrell and Bell Bunte Harrell, died on February 24, 2008. She was a noted author and photographer, with a record of many accomplishments and honors. She began her writing career even as an undergraduate at Texas Woman's University, where she served as editor of the Daily Lass-O and received her B.A. degree there in 1950. She soon went to New York and filled various positions in the publishing world, such as writing for the American Scandinavian Review , working in sales and advertising at the Columbia University Press and in promotion-news for the Episcopal Diocese Bulletin . Later she came back to Texas to work as a reporter and photographer on the Fort Worth Press . While in New York she continued her studies at Columbia, where she met L.D. Clark, another student and also a Texan who became an author. They were married on September 15, 1951 in Smithville, Texas. LaVerne's first book, They Sang for Horses , a study of Navajo and Apache horse mythology, was published by the University of Arizona Press and won the University of Chicago Folklore Prize for 1967. Except for brief intervals, this book has been in print ever since, in time recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a classic in Native American studies. In 1962, LaVerne became the founding director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and began exploring in writing and photography the poetry of the Sixties and Seventies, later publishing TheFace of Poetry and Focus 101 . All along she continued to examine the works of Mari Sandoz, on which she in time produced Mari Sandoz's Native Nebraska . She kept up the writing of fiction too, leading to The Deadly Swarm and Other Stories and a novel, Keepers of the Earth , which earned for her the Best First Novel Award from Western Writers of America in 1996. LaVerne always went on, too, with graduate studies in her different fields. She received an M.A. in English and Anthropology in 1962 from the University of Arizona, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing there in 1992. Among her other honors, she was a grantee of the American Philosophical Society, a member of PEN, was chosen as a Distinguished Alumna of Texas Woman's University, and a few years ago selected for inclusion in Who's Who in America . She was recently elected to membership in the Texas Institute of Letters. Although she spent numerous years in New York and Arizona, LaVerne always retained and at length returned to her roots in Texas, coming from a family that dates back seven generations to the original Austin colony. Visitation: 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Friday, February 29 at the Marrs-Jones Funeral Home in Smithville. Funeral: 10:00 a.m. Saturday, March 1 at the First Presbyterian Church in Smithville. In lieu of flowers, donations to the First Presbyterian Church, 300 Burleson Street, Smithville TX 78957 will be greatly appreciated.