Josephine 'Jo' Carol Mercer Clark, 87
Josephine "Jo" Carol Mercer Clark, 87, passed away Friday, Feb. 17, 2006, at Brendan House in Kalispell.
She was born April 6, 1918, in a farmhouse just outside of Twin Bridges, to Clifford A. and Mary Eliza (Stark) Mercer. Jo lived with her family in Gallatin County for five years, where her mother was a school teacher and her father farmed. They moved to Butte, where her father went to work in the copper mines. Jo was the oldest of six children, having four brothers and one sister. She graduated from the eighth grade at Longfellow school in Butte.
Jo moved to Great Falls where she worked at the school for the deaf and blind. She supervised the children and also helped out in the kitchen and dinning room.
Jo married Ole V. Clark, a ditching contractor, on Oct. 17, 1940, in Cut Bank. Jo and Ole had three children, two girls and one boy. The family moved to Columbia Falls, in 1964, where Ole owned and operated a wrecking yard and had a new block home built on their acreage.
Jo's "biggest" hobby was sewing.
As far as traveling, Jo tells of how a friend and she drove to the World's Fair at Treasure Island in San Francisco, in 1939, the year before she married. After many years in the wrecking business Jo's husband died on Aug. 18, 1988.
Jo sold the business in 1989 prior to moving to Brendan House.
Jo is preceded in death by her parents, her husband and her four brothers and one sister.
She is survived by one son, Vern Clark and wife, Dorothy, of Kalispell; two daughters, Carol Marie Henderson of Macon, Ga., and Mary Jean Lundstrom and husband, Frank, of Silverdale, Wash.; 11 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter.
Funeral services for Josephine "Jo" Clark will be held 10 a.m. today, Feb. 18, at the Expo Building at the Kalispell Fairgrounds. Burial will be 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 20, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Columbia Falls. Viewing will be prior to services at the Expo Building from 9 to 10 a.m.
Johnson Mortuary and Crematory is caring for Jo's family.