Joyce Clarke

Joyce Clarke, 103, devoted and loving aunt, grandaunt, and great-grandaunt, passed away peacefully in her beautiful seaside home in Westport, CT, on August 30. She was born in Liverpool, England, on February 11, 1912, to Katie and John Clarke, a merchant ship captain and member of the Royal Navy Reserve. Joyce was raised in Brooklyn, NY, attended New Utrecht High School and earned a degree from Brooklyn College in 1932. She was co-founder of an all-women’s public relations firm, Sally Dickson & Associates, which she established in 1943 with her longtime friend Sally Dickson. The New York City-based company had major accounts including Good Housekeeping, Bristol-Myers, Ocean Spray, Borden, Avon, and Procter & Gamble. In 1945, the firm earned the Silver Anvil Award recognizing excellence in public relations. Joyce and Sally shared their business knowledge in A Woman’s Guide to Financial Security, a book they co-authored in 1953. Joyce retired in 1980, after selling her company to Donald Creamer. She remained active with Literacy Volunteers, applying her passion for writing to the organization’s monthly newsletter. Joyce was an avid boater and for many years a member of the Saugatuck Harbor Yacht Club. She enjoyed travelling the world and loved Broadway and the theater. A lifelong learner, Joyce pursued her love of books through audiotapes and discs once her sight diminished in her mid-eighties. She was determined to live on her own, and did so until the age of 100, with the help of her devoted housekeeper and friend Alice Hudson. Joyce was a caring aunt, a faithful friend, and a lover of music, games, humor, her garden, and, above all, people. She was an incredible inspiration to everyone she met and will be dearly missed. A memorial service will be conducted at 11am on Friday, the 4th of September, at Saugatuck Congregational Church, 245 Post Rd E, Westport, CT. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Joyce’s memory to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, P.O. Box 515, Northampton, MA 01061-0515 (https://www.macular.org).

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