Rev. Clarice Marijetta Wyatt Bell Church

A Life of Unfolding
Born in Atlanta, GA on December 9, 1929, Rev. Clarice Marijetta Wyatt Bell Church was the cherished daughter of the late Mr. Alonzo L. Wyatt of McDonough, GA, and Mrs. Clarice Wyatt (Williams-Vicks, maiden name) of Camilla and Cuthbert, GA. Preceded in death by her third child, Mr. Roy C. Bell, Jr., she is survived by her other three children: Dr. Ava P. Bell-Taylor, Mr. Eric Wyatt Bell (Sylvia), and Dr. Clarice Marijetta Bell-Strayhorn; her grandchildren: Winston Wyatt Taylor and Ava P. Taylor (Ava); Erica V. Bell and Georgia State Representative Eric Wyatt Bell II (Eric); Jasmine M. Hardnette (Roy); and Jetta Marie Strayhorn, Zaila Clarice Strayhorn, and Wyatt D. Strayhorn (Clarice); and a host of loving cousins of the Wyatt family and the Williams-Vicks family.
She deeply loved her children and grands; she diligently loved her church. And her incessant love of learning, something she instilled in her children and grandchildren, kept her on a lifelong path of continual personal growth and service to others. With each passing year, through life's most challenging times, she gracefully and boldly unfolded the layered fabric of her being. As instructed in Isaiah 54:2-3, she kept expanding, stretching, lengthening, and strengthening, until there were no creases or folds left unexposed, no interests left unexplored, no responsibilities left undone, and no love left unexpressed.
Given her middle name in honor of her father's mother, Mary, and her mother's mother, Jetta, Rev. Church's parents always called their only child Marijetta. Her father, with only a sixth grade education, worked hard and long hours as a Pullman Porter for the Southern Railway from 1930 to the late 1960s, in order to gain his family's access to the middle class. In 1931, amidst the Great Depression, he bought his family a new home in the modest, new Black community of Hunter Hills on the westside of Atlanta. As early as she could remember, her mother, as Rev. Church would say, "dressed her up like a doll everyday". Her parents ensured that her education started early, enrolling her at Spelman College Nursery School in 1933 at the age of 3. As a deacon and deaconess at West Hunter Street Baptist Church, they also made sure that her religious education started early. Her mother would later often laugh while recalling the sarcastic but sincere words of her precocious 4 year old when she was first made to attend Sunday school in the basement of the church instead of being with the adults in the upstairs sanctuary, "I can't learn nothing in the 'bottun' of the church!" She expressed clearly where she wanted to be: upstairs in the main sanctuary, in the midst of the main action.
Educated during the era of Jim Crow and segregation, she attended elementary school at Ashby Street School, later renamed, E.R. Carter, and, having started school early and later skipping a grade, graduated from Atlanta's only high school for Black students, Booker T. Washington High, in 1946 at the age of 16. Rev. Church fondly wrote, "When I came home from school, I would go to the kitchen where I usually found my mother cooking dinner. Instead of permitting me to wash dishes or help prepare food, mother would always tell me to do my homework and study". Earning academic scholarships, at age 20, she graduated from Spelman College with a BA in biology and a minor in math. While still in college, a new, state of the art public library, and Atlanta's second library built for Black citizens, West Hunter Branch, was built directly across the street from her home at 1115 Hunter Street, influencing her interest in pursuing library science, instead of nursing as she had previously planned.
In this pursuit, she moved to Washington DC to work as a librarian assistant at Howard University after college. There she met a Howard University dental student, Dr. Roy C. Bell; they were joined in marriage in 1957 at her childhood church, West Hunter Street Baptist Church, with the late Rev. Franklin Fisher officiating. Her four children were born to this union.
She soon introduced her husband to Atlanta's civil rights leaders who she knew well. Dr. Bell would be appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., her second cousin, to be the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) Special Projects Director; she supported her husband through his lengthy and ultimately successful fight to desegregate Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital. During their marriage, with the support of her mother in raising her four children, she pursued and obtained a Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) degree in 1965 from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), being a recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Library Fellowship.
When her marriage ended in 1966, she evolved from being a stay-at-home mom to being the primary and, oftentimes, sole provider for her four young children. From taking education courses at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) and Georgia State University, to taking legal courses at Woodrow Wilson Law School, she hustled and she unfolded. Her career as a librarian/media specialist stretched broad: from the DC area, Howard University and the National Library of Medicine, to Philadelphia, Wagner Jr High, to metropolitan Atlanta, Chamblee HS, Hightower Elem, GA Tech, Morehouse School of Medicine, East Atlanta HS, Thurgood Marshall MS, Therrell HS, and Dekalb County Public Schools. And she kept unfolding
Outside of her career as a librarian, from 1973 to 1977, she worked her way up to the role of Manager of the Data Control Department at the Atlanta Housing Authority. Also in 1977, she remarried to the late Mr. John Church. The following year, she became a part-time real estate agent at Brown and Reese Realty, one of Atlanta's first Black-owned residential brokerage firms; and 9 years later, at the age of 57, she again lengthened her cords, becoming a licensed real estate broker and forming her own real estate brokerage firm, Clarice Church Realty. And she kept unfolding
Rev. Church loved the excitement of undertaking new endeavors: in the early 1980s, she built and opened A to Z Recording Studio on Campbellton Rd, held gospel talent search programs with local radio stations, and later was the executive assistant to the founder of His Love Records. Longing not only for professional growth, she rededicated her life to Christ with passion upon joining Atlanta Metropolitan Church (now Metro City Church) in 1979, growing spiritually, serving faithfully for close to 20 years, and becoming an ordained deacon. Her mother lived with her for more than a decade until she passed in 1998 and would often jokingly say, "The doors of the church can't open good without Marijetta being there pushing on them". And she kept unfolding
As Rev. Church witnessed the devastating effects on her immediate neighborhood and community caused by the 1980's crack epidemic and the ensuing "war on drugs" which resulted in mass incarceration, she developed compassion for those struggling with substance abuse. Following the Lord's guidance, at age 60, she completed substance abuse counseling training through the SCLC's Wings of Hope Anti-Drug Program in 1990. She soon enlarged her tents and began opening her home in Southwest Atlanta to former neighbors suffering from addiction and or homelessness, allowing individuals to live with her for extended periods as a part of her newly-extended family. And she kept unfolding
She later joined Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in Austell, GA. Feeling a deep call to the Christian ministry but not knowing how to pursue it, she only spoke of it to her daughter who was studying in seminary. One day after church while greeting her pastor, Bishop Dale C. Bronner, he whispered, unprompted, one of the greatest and most unexpected confirmations in her spiritual journey, "The Lord told me to ordain you".
With this confirmation, she kept unfolding
At the age of 74, she became an ordained minister.
At 75, she published her first book, Win With The Word.
At 77, she received her Doctor of Ministry Degree (DMin) from Beacon University.
At 80, she began offering the prayer during Sunday services, overcoming her long-held fear of public speaking.
At 88, she expanded the reach of those prayers she prayed in Sunday services, publishing her third book, The Path to Bible Based Prayers and Praise.
At 90, she still housed those who were formerly unhoused, still drove to church, often in her white retro Destiny Classic car, still dressed as elegant and stylish as ever, and still enjoyed going out dancing. It took a whole global pandemic in 2020, and other events outside of her control, to slow her body down. But her spirit, personality, sense of humor, and style never diminished.
At 95, she was still funny, engaging, quick with a verbal comeback, and still put on her own lipstick until the day her unfolded life well-lived was completed.
As promised in Isaiah 54:2-3, her tenacity, her prayers, her love, and her legacy are the inheritances of her children, her grandchildren, her friends and family, and her descendants to come.