Anne Eaton Bennett Clarke

12/15/1959 - 06/30/2025

Anne Eaton Bennett Clarke lived a good life. She was loved. She loved beautiful things: art, fashion, and music. She loved theatre. She was smart, brilliant even. Like all the Bennett sisters, she knew about all kinds of things. She loved long conversations about ideas. Loved words. Loved talking about poetry. She was cool. Above all, she loved her family, her sisters. She loved Percy. And dogs, always dogs. Anne loved to dance. And talk. She was funny. Seeing cardinals always made her smile. And she never missed an opportunity to feed the bunnies in the back yard. She had her mother's blue eyes. She loved her friends at the Blue Dog bakery, who were always so kind to her. People were so kind to Anne. She invited it. And Anne appreciated kindness like nobody else in the world. She was generous, so thoughtful to her friends. She loved her Crescent Hill neighborhood. She loved her walks up and down Frankfort, always greeting everyone she met. And most everywhere Anne went she met a friend - sometimes with two legs, sometimes four. What a sweet girl, they always said.
Anne was born in Louisville on December 15, 1959, the second daughter of Allis Eaton Bennett and Henry Roberts Bennett, following her sister Elizabeth by fourteen months. After an idyllic childhood in Manhattan, the family moved to Atlanta, back to Louisville where Anne attended Collegiate, then to Birmingham where Anne graduated from Mountain Brook High School. By now with two more daughters, Virginia and Ruth, the family moved back home to Louisville. Four Bennett sisters, just like "Pride and Prejudice".
Like her sister Elizabeth before her, Anne attended Centre College. Anne also studied art and creative writing at the University of Louisville. She would write for her own pleasure the rest of her life. Ultimately Anne transferred to Rhodes College in Memphis, where she graduated in 1983 with a degree in Art/Museum Studies. After college, Anne's first job was working for Cannon Films; among other things, she recruited extras for Chuck Norris "Missing in Action" movies being filmed on the island of St. Kitts.
At a Centre Homecoming in 1979, Anne had her first date with Percy Clarke. They dated through college and were married in Louisville at Calvary Episcopal in 1988. Soon after, they bought their first house in Memphis. Over the years, Anne spent a lot of time with Percy in Memphis. Their life together, Percy and Anne, and their wire fox terriers, first Lilly then Biddy, was unique. Truly of their own making. For almost ten years, Anne had an apartment on St. Charles in New Orleans, taking Amtrak back and forth to Memphis. For the last twenty years, Anne had a place in Crescent Hill in Louisville. And for over twenty-five extended summers, Anne and her mother Allis were off to Kolymvari, Crete, to a little stone house on a hill amongst the olive groves, looking out at the Mediterranean. Anne was never happier than being in that place with her beloved mother. Anne had a wonderful life and enjoyed it immensely. She traveled the world and had interesting times, met so many interesting people. And every day Anne was not in Memphis, no matter where, Percy and Anne made time to talk.
And now here we are.
In the early morning of June 30, 2025, at home in Memphis with Percy by her side, Anne died from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). She was sixty-five years old. As she did with challenges throughout her life, Anne faced her disease with a positive attitude and relentless kindness to everyone she met. Special thanks are due to the ALS team of Dr. Richard Lewis at Norton Brownsboro in Louisville and the ALS team of Dr. Tulio Bertorini at Semmes-Murphey in Memphis. Please bless them. It is a wonderful thing they do.
Anne so loved her family. It broke her heart to leave them. She leaves behind her husband Percy Caulfield Clarke of Memphis; sister Elizabeth Bennett Lively and her husband Thad Lively of Castle Rock, CO, their son Pierce Lively, his wife Erin and daughter Grace of Denver, and their son Will Lively and his partner David Swing of Concord, NC; sister Virginia Allis Bennett Leeds and her husband Roy Leeds of Elon, NC, and their daughter Andrea Leeds of New Bern, NC; and sister Ruth Hough Bennett of Louisville, and her son Samuel Bennett of Louisville. Anne also leaves behind her dear aunt, Martha Bennett Peddy of Jackson, TN. Anne's kindness and goodness lives on in each of us. Indeed, in everyone that Anne touched.
The world lost a good soul when Anne moved on.
A memorial will be held at Pearson's, 149 Breckenridge Lane, Louisville, KY, 40207 on Saturday, August 16 at 10:00 am.
Donations are welcome to a charity of the donor's choice. Never forget kindness is everything!