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Note: Elmer Dawson Clark was born on February 14, 1918 at Grapeland, Houston County, Texas to Johnny Burr Clark and Eva Jewel Williams Clark. He
had 4 older brothers (John E Clark, George Edward Clark, Vernon Luther
Clark {Bigon} and Olan B Clark {Dick}) and one older sister (Ora D
Clark Yates). Dick and Ora were twins.
He attended school at Enon and Grapeland. In 1935 and 1936 hi lived in
a dugout while working on a ranch in West Texas. He returned to East
Texas in 1934 and went to work for the Missouri and Pacific Railroad
on the bridge gang.
On Christmas Eve of 1938, he married Stella Mae Lock and they lived in
a house trailer he built and moved with the railroad crew until 1942.
Doris Ann Clark Reed was born in January, 1941, and James Harlon Clark
was born in October, 1942. The trailer that started out small got even
smaller.
In 1942, he took a job in Houston for the Houston Ship Yards and later
the Brown Ship Yards. Eddie Earl Clark was born in August, 1944. Elmer
was drafted into the Navy in 1945, and served a short stint at San
Diego, until receiving a medical discharge. From 1945 to 1948, he
operated an automotive garage in Palestine, Texas.
In 1948 he took a job with Shell Oil Company in Deer Park, Texas and
later that year moved the family to South Houston, Texas. He worked
for Shell as a labor foreman until he retired in 1971. Much of the
time at Shell was spent as a mechanic, but in the last years of his
employment, he was a maintenance foreman of the spur railroad in the
plant.
In Palestine, he was a member of the South Side Baptist Church. He
became a member of the First Baptist Church of South Houston in 1948,
and attended there ever since.
In 1954 he was raised as a Master Mason in South Houston Lodge #1295
and served as Worshipful Master there in 1962/63. He is a 32 degree
York Rite Mason, a 32 degree KCCH Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the
Royal Order of Ducks, and a member of the Past Masters Club in the
Shrine. In 2004/5 he was awarded the Golden Trowel award from the
South Houston Lodge #1295.
He had a passion for Volkswagons and built 3 VW trikes in his 80s. He
restored a 1963 VW and drove it daily. He could build, rebuild and
restore anything on wheels. He also built the homes the family lived
in.
He and Stella's family include three children and their spouses, nine
grandchildren and their spouses and 18 great-grandchildren.
In these 89 years of his life he has done a lot of work, and a lot of
fishing, hunting, camping, traveling, and even motorcycle riding. He
tried to pass on to his children and grand-children his love of
travel. He visited each of the fifty states, Canada, Mexico, and
toured Europe and the Holy Lands. He was a wonderful Christian
husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
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