Fannie Mae Cole Clark

Fannie Mae Cole Clark was eight years old when she accompanied an older sister to a piano lesson. The teacher asked if she would like to take piano lessons too. Young Fannie's answer was to slide onto the piano bench and, without a single lesson, play the piece her sister had just played from memory without missing a single note.

 

It was an amazing music talent that led her to eventually form her own music group, The Fannie Clark Singers, and later the Tennessee Mass Choir.

 

In addition to her music talent, Mrs. Clark had shown an early love of teaching, setting up what her family calls a "shade tree" school with blackboard and chalk in the family's backyard, where she taught math and reading to neighborhood children.

 

Mrs. Clark passed Saturday, September 21, 2013 after a brief bout with cancer. She had taught in the city schools for 41 years before retiring in 2000 as a fifth and sixth-grade teacher at Newberry Elementary School.

 

Mrs. Clark would often say "the years in our lives are not as important as the life in our years," and her interests went beyond music and formal education.

 

She also was politically active in the community. For 25 years she sponsored an annual political forum at her Whitehaven home, inviting people to mingle with political candidates in order to get to know the people running for office. Her forums were considered to be similar to the old St. Peter's Home picnics.