Church singer, early Henderson factory worker Clark dies

Jean Reid Norman

Thursday, June 21, 2001 | 9:05 a.m.

Virginia Clark knew how to hold the high notes.

Her voice rang above the congregation of Faith Baptist Church in Henderson as they sang the hymn "He Lives" on Sunday mornings. When they came to the climactic part of the chorus, she outlasted every congregant, the pianist, even the music director, whose arm would flag as Clark's vibrato soared.

That voice fell silent Sunday night. Virginia Lee Clark died in Bainbridge Island, Wash., at the age of 76, after a long illness.

Services for the Henderson resident of 56 years will be held 10 a.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary, 800 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson. Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Thursday.

Born in Boulder, Colo., on Sept. 15, 1924, Clark was the daughter of Florence and Alonzo Denham. When she was 13, her parents divorced, and her mother married Millard Stewart, who moved the family to Henderson in 1941 to work at the new factory built to support World War II.

The Stewarts lived in a platform tent until government housing was constructed. They were among the first families to occupy the townsite houses built for factory workers in Henderson, family members say.

Clark graduated from Las Vegas High School, the only high school in the county at the time, in 1942.

Lacking the required science training, "she begged for a job" at Basic Magnesium Inc. and was hired as a lab technician in 1943 -- one of a generation of women who worked in factories for the war effort, daughter Patty Regan said. She said Clark worked in labs off and on for about 20 years at Titanium Metals Corp., which later replaced the magnesium factory.

Near the end of the war, she went to Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., for one semester of music training before returning to Henderson, marrying and having children.

Once her five children had grown, she became a chaplain, training and then serving at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital in the 1970s, now University Medical Center. She served as chaplain at Boulder City Hospital until she had a disabling stroke in 1987.

"That chaplaincy meant a lot to her. She really liked helping people," her husband, John Clark, said.

But her family and friends best recall the voice -- the soprano that not only rang out in church every Sunday, but also along Tungsten Avenue, where it could be heard blocks away calling her children in from play.

"We used to ask my mom, 'Can you please blend in?' " Regan recalled, but Clark never would be muted.

While she never sang professionally, she was a favorite at weddings and funerals in Henderson. "She was the one to call," Regan said. When a funeral Clark attended had no prepared music, Regan recalled, her mother would, unbidden, sing "The Lord's Prayer" a cappela.

That will be one of the musical selections at her service Friday, Regan said, along with "He Lives."

"And I'm going to make the pianist hold that note," Regan said.

Besides husband John, of Henderson, and Regan, of Bainbridge Island, Clark is survived by sons Bob Barquist of Pahrumph, Stewart Barquist of North Bend, Ore., David Scherer of Las Vegas and daughter Barbara Stevens Gines of Henderson; stepdaughters Donna Carducci of Henderson and Linda Henry of Las Vegas; sisters Jean Thompson of Henderson and Phyllis Wheat of Truth or Consequences, N.M.; 21 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by husband P.T. "Jack" Stevens.