Bishop Mark Clinkscales

Bishop Mark Clinkscales, 84, husband of Carolyn Mance Clinkscales, passed away at his home, 107 Rose Hill Street, Anderson, SC, on Thursday, March 6, 2025.
Bishop Mark Clinkscales was born in 1940 in Anderson, SC, to Bud Lee and Lavonia Norris Clinkscales. He was the third youngest of 23 children. Mark attended grade school at Mountain Spring School in Piercetown. He left at an early age to help on the farm.
A spry, Mark Clinkscales met a young Carolyn Mance during the summer of 1964, where she first spotted him under a grand oak tree. He looked at her. She looked at him. The rest is history because later that night, he was standing on her front porch asking to see her. And by a year later, they were married.
Mark, an adage that he often iterated, was a man known by his fruits - A hard worker. A shepherd of a flock. A family's cornerstone and in every page of his story, Mark's life exemplified this verse from his favorite scripture: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah
Mark led with peace. In 1978, he was called into the ministry after being baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost. In 1984, he was presented with a plot of land in Anderson, and he, along with Charlie Mance, his father-in-law, broke ground on Zion Pentecostal Holiness Church of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ where he led the congregation for over 40 years. Throughout his tenure as Bishop, Mark was a selfless leader, continuously giving away monetary blessings, feeding the congregation from his garden, and even gifting those in the church with cars. Mark showed ultimate servant leadership by putting the Lord first in all his work.
Mark's life was full of joy. In the 1980s, he and his brother, Luke Clinkscales, started M&J Tree Service, the first black-owned tree pruning and landscaping company in Anderson. Family was everything to Mark. From riding around in an infamous burgundy van every Saturday with his grandkids to weekly family dinners held every Friday night, Mark was sure to center himself around those he loved. Throughout setbacks like falling out of a tree on the job, or breaking a jawbone due to a fallen limb, or even having his hand sliced by his brother due to a dare, Mark always had a joke and kept a smile on his face.
Mark often encouraged those around him by letting them know that "they had something". Outside of leaving his family and loved ones with so many good memories, he also left us with knowing that because of him, we had and will always have something.
Mark is survived by his wife, Carolyn Mance Clinkscales; his only daughter, Tammy Lynn Wilson (Jeffery); sons Marcus Anthony Clinkscales (Regenia) and Shaquille Clinkscales (Clarissa); ten grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, all of Anderson, SC. Brothers, Luke James Clinkscales (Hazel) of Anderson, SC and Paul Clinkscales of Greenville, SC. Sisters, Minnie Lyles of Greenville, SC, Ruby Dillard and Bessie Dunbar of Boston, Massachusetts, and Levonia Maddox of Stone Mountain, GA.
He's surpassed in death by siblings Lorene, Lawyer, Vera, Codelia, Ted, Eddie, Matthew, Rosa Lee, Kailes, John Henry, Lester, Charlie, Frank, Annie Bell, R.B., Robert Clinkscales and great-grandson Isaac Pickens.
The funeral service is at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Zion Apostolic Pentecostal Holiness Church with burial in Anderson Memorial Gardens. Public viewing is Saturday from 2-6 p.m. at D. B. Walker Funeral Services, and the body will be placed in the church Sunday at 1 p.m.
The family is at the home.
Professional services are entrusted to D. B. Walker Funeral Services.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Bishop Mark Clinkscales, please visit our floral store.