Thursday
April 25th, 2024
8:17AM
On the morning of September 8th, 2016, Clarence Edward Clark, better known as “Buster,” left to be with the Lord while surrounded by family at his home in Flowery Branch, Georgia. He was 87 years old and a lifelong, faithful member and deacon of Chattahoochee Baptist Church.
He is preceded in death by his father, Charnell Clark; mother, Ozzie Clark; sister, Dewey Evelyn Clark Peevy; son, Kevin Clark; and son-in-law, Tony Rothschild.
He leaves his wife of 67 years, Bonnie Clark; daughter, Cheryl Rothschild; daughter-in-law, Connie Clark; grandson, Eric Clark; granddaughter, Katie Clark; and grandpuppy, Rupert.
Buster was born at his family home in Flowery Branch on January 1st, 1929, and was the second child, and first son, of parents. He received the moniker “Buster” because he was thought by his family to be “a buster of a boy,” an intuition that would only be confirmed in the most endearing ways over his life.
Born at the start of the Great Depression to a small-time farming family, Buster came to know desperate hardship early on, but it was through these early trials that he came to cultivate the virtues of temperance, perseverance, fairness, self-reliance, and dignity. These traits would unfurl over the course of his life and together weave a tapestry of devoted love, quiet diligence, gentle brotherliness, avid curiosity, and simple, humorful delight in life.
In 1949, he married Bonnie Roper, a daughter of a farming family in Gainesville. Just four years later, he would become one of the first two married men to be drafted out of Hall County for the Korean War and dutifully serve his country while stationed on Waikiki as an army police officer. When he received an honorable discharge, he and Bonnie took a ship to San Francisco, where they embarked on a cross-country road trip back to Flowery Branch. There they built their home on the family farm, just a stone’s throw from the house in which he had grown up. They always spoke with great nostalgia about these early times. In the ensuing years, Buster and Bonnie together had a daughter and then a son and instilled in them the same values with which they themselves had been raised. Buster continued working the small family farm with his father but called on his practiced resourcefulness to find work in town. An example of his ingenuity is the way he taught himself small engine work. One day while his family was still young, he brought home two kinds of small engines from the hardware store, completely disassembled them in his shop, mixed together all the parts from each in one big box, and then went about reconstructing them. Once he had accomplished this, he took his new skill set and began working at a Whitehead’s in Gainesville.
After going through a couple lines of work, he finally landed a career as a maintenance professional at the Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Lanier, in which he assumed various responsibilities for the upkeep of the Buford Dam and the designing of equipment for the federal parks around the lake.
Both of his children would marry and come into respectable careers as the years went on. In 1989 Buster retired from the Corps and entered the joys of becoming a grandfather to Eric and Katie, in whom he took great delight, particularly during the many weekends they spent with him and Bonnie. Eric and Katie consider their childhoods idyllic due in no small part to their grandparents’ tenderness and care.
However, Buster’s last years were marked by a great measure of grief. In 2012 his beloved son passed away. He was always a source of pride for Buster, having inherited his father’s curiosity, resourcefulness, and intelligence, sometimes even exceeding his father in these qualities. Nevertheless, Buster remained a source of strength to his family during this period, despite his flagging health. His daughter, an equal source of pride for him, has taken on greater and greater responsibility for her parents’ care. She is eternally grateful for the increasing time that God gave her to spend with her father in these later years.
Buster left this mortal coil with an abundant posterity, both earthly and heavenly. He will be greatly missed and devoutly remembered.
Visitation will be held from 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Saturday, September 10th, at Memorial Park Funeral Home (2030 Memorial Park Rd.) with a memorial service to follow at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Memorial Park Funeral Home. Reverend Clinton Sexton will officiate.
Memorial Park Funeral Home, 2030 Memorial Park Road, Gainesville, GA 30504 is in charge of arrangements.
Send online condolences to www.memorialparkfuneralhomes.com.
