Lena Clark Hurd July 17, 1923- February 1, 2010

Lena Francis Clark was born on what must have been one of the hottest days of 1923, in an ramshackle house in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. She was the third and youngest daughter of Jim and Rosa Clark, two store keepers in the local mercantile. Her older sisters were Willie Blanche (Bill) and Mary Elizabeth (Mae Mae).

Lena Francis' earliest and most indelible memories of childhood reflected her life as a child of the depression. She remembered not having a bicycle to ride with her best friend Mary Jeanette. She remembered spending a lot of time sitting in a corner of the store by herself as both of her parents worked hard to try to provide basics for the family. She read a lot and her favorite book was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a poignant story about an young immigrant girl living in Brooklyn going through many of the same loneliness and poverty issues as Lena. Her favorite color was blue, and she won an art contest at the age of 9. She had painted a water color of a boat on a blue ocean....lost at sea.

When Lena was in high school, her mother decided to separate from her father and move to Memphis, TN. Lena and her mother had to live on the meager earnings of her older sister Mae Mae who was working as a secretary. Lena remembered feeling like the poorest kid in her new school. She wore the same dress to school each day, but made sure that it was washed and ironed each night. She earned lunch money by serving the other high school kids their lunches on trays....another humiliation. Lena had two boyfriends in high school/ one was handsome and the other was a wonderful dancer.....She preferred the dancer!

Lena Francis Clark graduated from Humes High School in May 1940. The country would soon be caught up in WW II after the Dec. 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Lena would spend her young adulthood helping to craft airplanes in a factory as all of the eligible young men were eagerly signing up to fight in the war. Lena was the quintessential "Rosie the Riveter." She often told stories of not having stockings or root beers because the materials were needed for the boys fighting in the war.

Lena married Arthur Eugene Meredith in 1949 believing that she was the first wife of this dashing young soldier returned from the war. She was wrong. He had been married to a woman in Belgium and this woman had born his child; he had been married to a young woman in Mississippi where he had attended Ole Miss until he was expelled from the university. This woman named Lillian had also given birth to two daughters of Gene Meredith. Ultimately,Lena also gave birth to two of his children, the oldest Joann...the youngest Arta Gene.

Lena and Gene traveled to California where he tried many different jobs and she also got jobs as a neighbor babysat Joann. When Lena became pregnant with their second child, they headed back to Memphis where they eventually stayed after Lena secured a civil service job with the US Postal service. Lena along with her parents, bought a house in Memphis. Her father had become confined to a wheel chair. She found herself in the position of having to support her two babies as well as lend support to her parents. In return, her parents watched over the babies as Lena worked. Gene Meredith was not a provider for the family.

Unlucky in life, now it was painfully clear that she had not chosen a good husband. After years of emotional abuse, she finally divorced Gene Meredith in 1960. By this time she was well ensconced in her job. She claimed custody of her children in return for not asking for a single dime of alimony or child support. She went to college at night to earn an associate degree in accounting.

After her years of working in the airplane factory, Lena had become proficient in the use of power tools. She parlayed her natural creativity into carpentry work....unprecedented for women at that time. In 1962, she decided to reconfigure the house into two apartments and single handedly added a bathroom that she wired and plumbed herself! She began making her own furniture and learned that she had tremendous creativity and energy. It was not unusual for our kitchen table to be covered with hammers, saws, and nails!

Lena finally met Eddie Hurd, the love of her life, when she was 45 years old, but refused to marry him until her girls were old enough to leave home. They married in 1970 at a chapel in Las Vegas. Lena's tragic flaw was that she loved gambling. She had been going to Bingo games, then the dog track in West Memphis, Ark. When she discovered Las Vegas, she joined the big leagues.

Her years married to Eddie Hurd were the happiest of her life. Eddie was a loving husband and was very supportive of her creativity and energy. His three children were of similar age to Lena's two daughters and the combined familty enjoyed a decade of family dinners on Sunday evenings as the grand children came along.

After Eddie passed away in 1988, Lena spent two years in deep mourning. When she emerged from this painful time, she vowed to find a man who "was a good dancer with a full head of hair!" Bruce Logan fit the bill and she and Bruce had a 10 year rocky romance full of fun, music, and dancing. I've often thought that this was the "teen aged" period of her life that she didn't get to have because of the war.

Bruce left Lena when she began showing signs of aging and TIA strokes. In 2002 Lena suffered a massive stroke that robbed her of balance, the ability to walk and the ability to speak. We moved her to Charleston and after a few months, she became part of Sandy and Rob Breedlove's family. The last 8 years of her life were spent in the love and care of this wonderful family who took the greatest care of Lena. The Breedlove's were her blessing from God at a time that she would have chosen simply to die. They proved to be the family that she always wanted and needed, the stability that had eluded her most of her life.

She passed away on Feb. 1st 2010 after having spent only 3 days in the hospital. She did not suffer and she was not in pain. She died peacefully and will be laid to rest with her beloved Eddie in his grave.

Lena Francis Clark Hurd was born at a most unfortunate time in history and her milestones through life were marred by depressions, wars, and social climates unfavorable to her. She struggled through a career watching the civil rights movement pass black men to positions above her because black men were given some rights through affirmative action that were not deemed as necessary for women (particularly single white mothers) at that time. She was a very remarkable woman, a ground breaker and a survivor.

She will be missed by her surviving family. Daughters Joann Cordell and Meredith Armstrong, grand children Chad Cordell, Andrea Cordell, and Robyn Davis, and sister Mary Elizabeth Taylor, and surrogate family: Sandy and Rob Breedlove, LJ Breedlove, Joy, Scott, Gail, Scott, Taylor, Kailin, and Raily.