Life Story

Elvira Anna Farrar Clarke lived a wonderful life.

 

She was the youngest child of the late James R. Farrar and Martha Anna Smith Farrar. Elvira was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on November 23, 1914.  She was pre-deceased by her brothers, Herman Farrar and Ross Hamilton Farrar; and sisters, Marion F. Johnson, Catherine F. Nixon, and Martha F. Few.  Elvira passed away at the age of ninety-four on February 13, 2009 in Santa Monica, California after a long illness. She is survived by her three daughters, Dr. Audrey  Millicent Clarke and Elvira Annette Clarke of Los Angeles, California;  and Judith Clarke Ellinoy and son-in-law, Dr. Bruce Ellinoy of Manhattan Beach, California; granddaughter, Teresa Clarke Ellis and grandson-in-law, Dr. John Ellis of New York City; sister-in-law, Marie Clarke Torian of Hillsborough, North Carolina; brother-in-law, Franklin Herman Few of Trumbull, Connecticut; and a host cousins, nieces and nephews; many grand nieces and grand nephews; as well as numerous other relatives and friends.

 

Elvira attended Island Brook Elementary School, Read School, and Shelton Junior High School in Bridgeport. She graduated from Central High School in 1932 and attended HowardUniversity in Washington, D.C. where she majored in education and home economics. During her high school and college years, Elvira was an active and accomplished athlete. She played basketball for the YWCA girls’ basketball team, often traveling with the team throughout the northeast to compete in tournaments. She was also a ranked tennis player who became well-known in local competition at Bridgeport’s Parks and Recreation program, in addition to playing in the black tennis association tournaments located at Yale University fraternity houses in New Haven. Her love for these sports continued throughout her life. She taught her granddaughter to play both basketball and tennis.

 

In 1935 she married George “Buddy” Paul Clarke, a graduate of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, who became the first black fireman and lieutenant in Bridgeport. Buddy passed away in February 1978.

 

Elvira enjoyed a long career in several positions of service to the public. She was a junior high teacher for Bridgeport Public Schools, followed by the position of employment counselor for the State of Connecticut. Elvira was committed to community service and enjoyed volunteer leadership positions that included President of the Board of Directors of Visiting Nurse’s Association of Bridgeport, the Fairfield County Girl Scout Executive Board, the Board of the United Way of Bridgeport, and the Bridgeport Inter-Group Council. Elvira was a devout and dedicated member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Bridgeport, where she served as a member of the Altar Guild and as a Sunday School teacher.   She was also a Girl Scout Troop Leader.

 

After moving to Los Angeles, California in 1962, she served as Program Director for Child Care and Development Services, over-seeing Head Start pre-school programs in Glendale, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles. She particularly enjoyed working with pre-school children and their families.  She became known as an expert in early childhood development, and was appointed to Mayor Tom Bradley’s Advisory Committee on Child Care.  She assisted in drafting of state legislation that governs child care centers in California, and co-authored a manual on how to start a child care center.  She was interviewed on television in the 1970s on the topic of child care.  In 1976, she received an award from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare for her “long and valued service to the children in Project Head Start. Your talents and dedication have helped to enrich the lives of five and a half million children and their families.”

 

After working for many years in the area of early childhood development, Elvira decided to retire at age sixty-five.  Her retirement lasted a few months before she became bored.   Elvira then started a new phase of her career as an Assistant Librarian at Angeles Mesa Public Library, where she worked for another sixteen years, and then retired a second time at the age of eighty-one. As an avid reader, she really enjoyed her work, including pre-viewing new books and helping individual young students and their families, as well as entire classes accompanied by their teachers from Angeles Mesa School.

 

Travel far and wide is another passion that Elvira enjoyed tremendously. She had a lifelong sense of adventure and wonderment that fueled her keen pursuit of discovery when experiencing new places, people, and other phenomena. She was thrilled when visiting Shakespeare’s home at Stratford upon Avon. She reveled at a tea dance at a London hotel, and was astonished by the remarkable sunset on Lake Victoria in Zimbabwe.  She attended an haute couture fashion show in Paris, picked fruit at a farm in the countryside of Brazil, and cheered at a bullfight in Madrid.  She participated in a local carnival in Lausanne, Switzerland, observed young children in schools in South Africa, and enjoyed the music on a yacht at the Newport Jazz Festival. She tracked animals on safari in the national parkof South Africa, and shopped for authentic dulce de leche in Buenos Aires. She dined at Tavern on the Green in Central Park, her favorite restaurant, and she beamed with joy during the performances of the Alvin Ailey dancers in New York.  For several Christmases, she went with her family on cruises to Mexico. The list of countries she visited includes Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, and Zimbabwe.

 

Elvira always found the beauty of the moment, always saw the glass as half full, and strove to push herself to succeed at feats such as walking an extra lap around the track, riding her stationary bike well into her  90s, and adding just a little more to the hand weights she lifted.

 

She especially enjoyed visits to Johannesburg, South Africa to spend time with her granddaughter.  Over a period of more than five years starting in her 80s, her visits grew from about three weeks to her last trip of eleven months.  Her combined trips to South Africa amounted to about two and half years. Highlights of her time in South Africa include a conversation with Winnie Mandela at a local restaurant; tea at the home of Bishop Desmond Tutu; a spectacular wedding of the prime minister’s daughter in Swaziland; a photo shoot for a profile in Essencemagazine; an appearance on the leading television talk show, and earning a reputation among her granddaughter’s friends as the fun-loving, concert and party going grandmother.

 

In honor of her 90th Birthday, Elvira received several commendations, including an official citation from the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, a resolution from the Los Angeles City Council, and congratulatory letters from President and Mrs. George W. Bush and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

Elvira lived her life to the fullest. She found great happiness as a loving and caring mother and grandmother. She was a strong, confident, role model for her family, friends, and associates. Her deep religious convictions and faith in the Almighty were uncompromising and steadfast.  She took great pleasure in serving and helping people. She had a sharp and quick wit, a great sense of humor and loved to laugh and have fun. With her positive attitude and indomitable spirit, she was an inspiration to everyone who knew her.  She often quoted Langston Hughes and said, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair;” yet she was always strong when facing adversity.  Her positive attitude, combined with her faith, gave her the resilience to overcome serious illness time and time again.

 

Throughout her life she had an infectious laugh and strong, distinguished speaking voice that lifted the spirit and could be heard by those in her presence. During her recent stay at Arbor View Rehabilitation Home, she was loved and held in high esteem by residents and staff alike, who continually requested that she recite her favorite poems that she learned from her eighth grade English teacher, and that she sing Summertime,from Porgy and Bess.

 

We believe that Elvira, with her great insight and infinite wisdom, gently prepared us for her home-going and departure from this Earth through her daily recitals of her favorite poem, Crossing the Bar, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.  It is thought that Tennyson wrote Crossing the Bar as his own elegy – a type of poem that reflects on death, and is appropriate for a funeral.  The metaphor of "crossing the bar" represents traveling from life to death. Shortly before he died, Tennyson told his son to put Crossing the Bar at the end of all editions of his poems.  Tennyson explained in an interview that within this poem, his reference to “The Pilot” is a metaphor for God. “The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him… [He is] that Divine and Unseen Who is always guiding us."

 

Crossing the Bar

(Selected verses)

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1889

 

Sunset and evening star,  

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea.

 

Twilight and evening bell.

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

 

For out of Time and Place

[The world has carried] me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crossed the bar.