When State Rep. Caroletta Alicea tells the story of the time she and her mother, former State Rep. Claire Clarke, met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she recalls walking in a parade through the streets of West Hempstead, N.Y., on Long Island, in the early 1960s with the other girls in her 4H troupe.
Clarke, a 4H leader, had told the girls there would be a “surprise” waiting for them at the end of the parade, but Alicea didn’t imagine the surprise would be a motorcade of long black cars and Dr. King with his window rolled down. Alicea took off running and was the first child to reach the car. As he reached out of the window and touched her hand, Clarke appeared beside her and confidently introduced herself.
“My mom walked up and she said, ‘I’m Claire Clarke and this is my daughter, Caroletta Clarke,’ ” Alicea recalled. “She was just so outgoing.”
Claire Clarke of Boscawen, a former state representative and educator, advocate for children and pioneer for women of color, died on Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. She was 92.
Friends and family remember Clarke as a charismatic presence whose 4-foot-11 stature, which garnered her the family nickname “Tiny,” contrasted with her big personality.
She had a strong belief, according to Alicea, that anybody could do anything if they tried, regardless of their ethnicity, race or background. It was a perseverance she embodied and encouraged in her students, daughter and grandchildren.
“She would tell everyone, ‘There’s no such word as can’t. The word is cannot, and you can,’ ” Alicea remembered, laughing. “You can do anything that you want to do. She was very adamant about that.”
Born in New Jersey, Clarke met her husband, David Clarke Jr., while at college in North Carolina, and they lived in Tennessee and Utah before moving to Harlem and then Long Island, where Claire Clarke was a teacher and counselor and David Clarke taught at NYU and worked at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
When the family moved to Boscawen in 1969 for David Clarke’s new job at the New Hampshire state prison, Alicea said they were the only family of color in town. Although many residents were not used to seeing people who looked different, it wasn’t long before Claire Clarke joined Boscawen Congregational Church and quickly made friends with almost everybody in the community.
“Wherever we went, she was like the mayor,” said Christian Alicea, Clarke’s oldest grandson. “She knew everybody. She always had time for everybody. … So it just made sense in her later years that she went into politics. It was just so natural for her to always be connecting with people.”
Clarke, a social butterfly, would hold big parties at their Boscawen home with an above-ground pool, and host people who needed a place to stay in town. She taught her sister’s children how to swim, and had many talents, including knitting, crocheting, singing, playing the piano and tap dancing.
Over the years, she was involved in a myriad of community groups, including church choir, Concord’s Zonta Club, the Old Home Day Committee, New Hampshire League for the Hard of Hearing and national organizations like the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the NAACP and AARP.
“Life of the party, extremely authentic,” Christian Alicea said. “I think that’s what attracted people to her. She wasn’t trying to be somebody she wasn’t to sort of fit into what she might have thought folks would expect her to be. She just was who she was.”
Clarke worked for 33 years as a guidance counselor at Winnisquam Regional High School in Tilton. She was certified as an SAIF, specialist in the assessment of intellectual functioning. At that time, Caroletta Alicea said, being a guidance counselor was hands-on. Clarke would do students’ laundry, feed them, find them clothes and shoes if they needed some, tutor them, visit their homes and talk with their families.
“She just didn’t believe in children being mistreated,” Caroletta Alicea said. “If she thought she could help, then she would help. If she heard a kid needed sneakers, she’d get a kid sneakers. She’d call me, ‘Caroletta, clean out the closet.’ ”
Clarke’s friend, former state representative Deborah Wheeler, remembers one time when a child at the IGA grocery store in Franklin asked why Clarke’s skin color was different. Clarke responded by asking the girl if she liked flowers, and explained that “flowers are many colors.”
“The little one kind of sat there for a minute, thinking it over, and then came back with, ‘Yes, flowers are many colors,’” Wheeler recalled. “I believe that’s when Claire said, ‘Many people are many colors.’ I thought that was a very good way to explain to people that we are all different but we are also all the same.”
Eager to help students in more than one district, Clarke ran for and won a seat on the Merrimack Valley School Board, where she remained for 15 years.
“She would sometimes be the only voice for a certain something, but she would stick to her guns and say, ‘No, it’s gotta be this way,’ ” Caroletta Alicea said. “She was never afraid to speak up, ever.”
Clarke also served as chair of the Boscawen Police Commission, where Merrimack County Sheriff David Croft, who was Boscawen’s police chief at the time, remembers she had many ideas that were “ahead of her time.”
“She was talking about things 20 years ago that we’re finally talking about today – de-escalation, mental illness, substance use disorders,” Croft said. “Claire always had some really credible ideas on things that I should try to look at doing, starting new programs, trying to give back to the community.”
At the urging of people in the community, Clarke ran and was elected state representative for Merrimack County District 6, where she served for five terms from 2000 to 2010. She was a member of the Education Committee and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. She was the prime sponsor of two bills that became law, one that provided additional funding for charter schools and another that clarified the state’s requirement to pay for special education services for students in court-ordered placements.
Caroletta Alicea said her mother was the inspiration and encouragement behind her own political career.
“When I decided to run to be a legislator I said, ‘Gosh, I don’t want to run on your coattails. I don’t know if I can do it on just what I’ve done,’ ” Caroletta Alicea said. “My mother was like, ‘Oh, yes, definitely. You’re fine. You’ve got this.’ ”
Clarke developed Alzheimer’s disease toward the end of her life and lived at the Merrimack County Nursing Home. Many people who worked and visited there were delighted to see their former guidance counselor.
Clarke was predeceased by husband, David C. Clarke Jr. She is survived by one sister, her daughter, three grandchildren and by her great-grandchildren.
There will be an open celebration of Clarke’s life on June 20 at the Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen.