Cumberland Foreside, Maine – Ellen Smith Clarke, 91, of Princeton, NJ, died Friday, October 7, 2016.
She was born August 24, 1925, in Hartford CT, the daughter of Thomas Sarsfield Smith and Catherine Klinger of West Hartford. Ellen attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy and the University of Saint Joseph School of Nursing of the Sisters of Mercy, Class of 1947.
On November 9, 1946, she was married at the Cathedral of St. Joseph to Audley Clarke II, son of Reginald Audley Clarke and Gertrude Shoebridge of Hartford CT, who served as a US Army Air Force officer in the Pacific stationed in Guam aboard a B29 from September 1943 to October 1946. After the war, Ellen moved to Princeton, NJ in 1947, as the wife of a Princeton University Student until 1949 then to Cambridge MA where she was a volunteer at the Bay State Rehab Clinic of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of Harvard Law Wives.
Ellen and her husband adopted two children, Kathryn Mary in 1957 and Jeremy Charles in 1959. She then lived in Providence, RI, Winchester, MA and Owings Mills, MD. While living in Maryland Ellen was a member of the Green Spring Valley Garden Club, volunteered at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and the Valley School. On their return to Princeton in 1969, Ellen became a Real Estate Agent with John T. Henderson Realty Inc. and remained with them and their successor companies for 42 years, retiring in 2008.
She was a member of the Mercer County Board of Realtors and was affiliated with the Princeton Realty Group, LLC. She served on the Board of Princeton Community Village Residence Association. Ellen was a faithful regular communicant of St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Princeton and was a Catechist in the 1970s with the teaching Sisters of Mercy. She was a supporting member of the Aquinas Institute Catholic Chaplaincy of Princeton University and volunteered at Stuart Country Day School, Order of Sacred Heart.
Ellen is survived by a daughter, Kathryn Clarke Held and husband Marc Held of Yarmouth ME and four grandchildren, Emily, William, Rebecca and Jonathan; and by a son Jeremy Clarke and Brenda Carbone of Farmingdale NJ and two children, Jeremy and Amber. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Also surviving are nieces and nephews, five from her older brother Thomas A. Smith & Marian Smith of Westerly RI, Thomas Smith Jr., Elizabeth Smith-Kulick of Norwell, MA, Jason Smith of New Britain, CT, Georgiana Smith of Newport, RI and Mary Johanna Ramirez-Smith of Madrid Spain; and two from her younger brother Charles Smith and Carolyn Cawkins Smith of Doylestown, PA, Charles Smith of Brooklyn, NY and Timothy Smith of Arlington, VA.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church, 326 Main Street, Yarmouth, Maine, 11:00 AM, Thursday, October 20, 2016, with burial following at Holy Cross Cemetery, Yarmouth.
Arrangements are under the direction of Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home, 172 State Street, Portland. To view Ellen’s memorial page, or to share an online condolence, please visit, www.ConroyTullyWalker.com.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: Sisters of Mercy, University of St. Joseph, CT, Office of Alumni Relations, 1678 Asylum Avenue, Hartford CT, 06117.
