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Note: [Clark and Related Families.FTW] Ernest and Lula are buried in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Colma, CA., a few miles from San Francisco and a few miles from San Bruno, California, their retirement home. Ernest was ten years of age when his father James Thomas Clark, died of tetanus in June of 1913. . He attended Hogan Creek School and remained in school through the eighth grade. One of his teachers was Lassie Pendleton. In 1916, at the age of thirteen he left home. He told me that part of the reason he left was that he didn't want another father. His mother Susan was planning to marry Harrison Lee Douglas. He went to live with a cousin of his mothers, Thomas Judson Fisher, Jr. and his wife,Martha Alice Burkett Fisher. The Fishers lived on Rt 70 between the Ballanger Rd. cutoff on Rte 70 and Carthage. In fact the back of their home could be seen from Ernest's old home on Ballinger Rd. Ernie did chores around the farm to earn his keep. He would saddle the horses for the daughers of the household, Dutch, Flossie and Melissa Oliver, and would help them on and off their horses. The girls rode horseback to school. The girl's nickname for Ernie was Bowser. Thomas Judson Fisher was a lawyer in Carthage. For some reason Mr. Fisher, decided to move to Nashville and Ernest helped the family make that move. He stayed with the Fishers until he joined the Army at 17 years of age. He told me he had quite a few jobs in Nashville before joining the Army but the only one I can remember is that of a car battery rebuilder. He joined the Army from Nashville sometime after June of 1920 and was sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, MO. After completing his indoctronation into the Army, he was transferred to the cavalry and was posted to a unit in or near Brownsville, Texas. I have since found that his unit was stationed at Camp Mercedes in Hildago Co., TX and that he was in Troop F4 and that this unit was part of the 16th Cavalry. When his enlistment was up a year later he returned home to Smith County. He worked on the county roads during this period. Times were very hard. He said that in the fall of 1921 work ceased on the roads until spring. He was out of a job and he was out of money since he had sent all of his money, with the exception of five dollars, to his mother, Susan Evelyn Fisher Clark Douglas. The road work he did was on that section near Boston Spring. He told us that the best water he had ever tasted was from that spring. He and my mother went looking for it on a trip back to Tennessee in 1960. He wasn't able to locate the spring. Shortly thereafter (1920) he joined the Navy and was sent to Norfolk Training Station at Norfolk , Va. He was to remain there for the next seven years. With his mechanical abilities and skills he earned a rating as avation mechanic. During the early 1920's he became involved with the Odd Follows Lodge and went through the chairs becoming a Noble Grand at a very early age. During this part of the 20th century the lodge played a very important part in the lives of many of us. There were very few social safey nets. The lodges helped fill this nitch. A large group of Odd Fellows and Rebeccas came to the base in Norfolk, from all over the state of Virginia for some type of meeting. It was during this meeting that Ernest met Lula Elizabeth Bibb of Lynchbug, Va. They met at the Hostess House on base while they were having ice ream. My mother said that as far as she was concerned it was love at first sight. She was fifteen years of age and Ernest was twenty-two. Before parting promises were made to write each other. There were a few letters but Ernest stopped writing. He had lost her address. Since a young lady would never continue writing when her last letter remained unanswered, the love match ended. This occured in May of 1925. Two years later there was some type of Odd Fellows socal event at the Armory in Alexandria, Va. Lula was in her senior year at Alexandria High School and living with her oldest sister Vaughan, and family. Lula was the youngest of eight children. Her parents had passed away when she was very young and she and two of her siblings were raised in the Odd Fellows Home in Lynchburg, Va. Lula had remained in the Home until she was 15 and was in the Home when she met Ernest. Shortly thereafter she moved to Alexandria. Lula was now 17 and engaged. She was flattered by the attentions of an older man twenty eight years of age. His name was Sammy. She had accepted his ring but she had no intention of marrying him. That evening at the Armory dance, she said to herself that Ernie might be there. She looked around and he was standing very close by. She left her date and remained with Ernie. That evening she and Sammy drove Ernie to the George Mason Hotel, where he was staying, and on the way home she ended her engagement. She said that Sam didn't want to take the ring back so she threw it on the car floor. Three months later on August 21, 1927 Ernest and Lula were married in Alexandria, Va. They boarded the packet boat to Norfolk that evening, and their life would be joined for the rest of their lives, only to be ended at the death of Ernest, June 16, 1970. Ernest had bought a house in 1925 in a section of Norfolk that was just off the base. The area was called Naval Terrace and sometime before that, East Camp. It was there on August 14, 1928, that their first child, Frances, was born. The Depression was in full swing and a neighbor by the name of Edwards, a builder, was trying to keep his construction group together. For little or no profit, he built a two bedroom brick house that Ernest and Lula bought inearly 1929. It was only a few doors down from the house that Ernie had bought in 1925. They were now the owners of two houses. it was shortly thereafter that Ernest was transferred to Pensacola Air Station, Pensocola, Florida. Their second child was born there on January 17, 1931. They remained in Pensacola until the early part of 1933. Lula was pregnant with her third child when they received orders to proceed to San Diego, California. Mom told me that luggage was strapped to the sides of the car: car trunks were not yet part of the design of the cars of that day, she said that there were many sections of the road west that were still unpaved. Ernest rode on her lap and was not potty trained so she said that many days here legs were galded from his wet bottom.When they arrived ato Bakersville, they found many people camping by the side of their earthquake damaged homes and that many buildings in town had sides that were down so that they wee open to the elements, showing bedrooms and kitchens. Bakersville had recently been struck by a very large earthquake and had not recovered from the effects at that time. They continued on to San Diego. Their youngest son, James, was born in San Diego on the 4 th of October 1933. Although the nation was in the depths of the depression, Ernest and Lula weren't doing too badly. They had two houses that were rented in Norfolk. He was receiving flight pay because he was an aviation mechanic, which added at least 10 Percent to his income. Their financial situation was all set to fall apart on them shortly theeafter, They frecieved notice that both houses in Norfolk were now empty. They had to let their first house go back to the mortgage company, in order to save the brick house. In January of 1934, Ernest was transferred to Pearl Harbour, Honolulu, Hawaii. In those days, pay records were transferred to a new station and not carried by the enlisted man as was done at a later date. There was no salary for the two until Ernest arrived in Hawaii. He lost his fight pay shortly thereafter due to his change of jobs Lula moved to smaller quarters near the beach in order to save $7.00 a month. It was six long and difficult months before Lula was able to join Ernest. It must have been very hard to be left with three children, all under five and one an infant in arms. In July of 1934 some of her friends drove Lula and the children to San Pedro, California where they boarded the USS Malolo, a Matson Liner, to Honolulu. They arrived on the 12th ofJuly 1934. Shortly after that the Federal government slapped a 10 percent cut on all active servicemens' salaries.
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