Mildred Lillie Clark

Mildred Lillie Clark, age 95 of Erin, TN, passed away Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Houston County Community Hospital.     

   A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Friday, March 1, 2024, at the Chapel of Nave Funeral Home with Rev. Kerry Lampley officiating. Burial will follow in Cedar Hill Cemetery. 

   The Clark family will receive friends from 10:00 a.m. until the hour of service Friday afternoon.    

   Mildred entered this life on March 6, 1928, in Houston County, TN, daughter to the late Georgie Rye and Mamie Stringfield Rye. Mildred was a member of Cedar Valley Church. Longtime matriarch of the Clark family, she passed away just 11 days shy of her 96th birthday! Born during the Coolidge Administration on the eve of the Great Depression, Mildred kept the home fires burning while her husband Freeman fought the Nazis on the Western Front and shepherded the growing Clark family through good times and bad for 80 years. 

She was a constant force in the life of her Children, Grandchildren, and Great Grandchildren. Known for her very tight hugs, Mildred loved when “her babies” would visit and got excited anytime one of them showed up at her door unexpectedly. Some of her favorite times were when the family gathered at her house for a holiday, a Sunday afternoon meal, and games around the dining table. To Mildred, family was truly everything, and her family is grateful for the gift of time with her! In her later years she was ready to see Jesus, and was known for saying, “When I go, don’t cry for me I have lived a long life!!”

   In addition to her parents, Mildred was preceded in death by her husband, Edgar Freeman Clark; children, James Phillip Clark and Sharon Ann Wright; grandson James Kirk Clark; daughters-in-law Lorena Clark and Janie Clark; and siblings, Audrey Naylor, Richard Rye, and Wilton Rye.    

   Survivors include her loving sons, George “G.E.” Clark, Jackie L. Clark; and sister, Maxine (Aubrey) Shelton. Mildred also leaves behind her precious grandchildren, Stephen (Andrew Potts) Clark, April Clark, Brandon (Mandy) Wright, Melissa Beth Clark; great-grandchildren, Phillip Chase Clark, Jenna Wright, Gannon Chance Clark, Felicity Alexis, and Chailey Jo Clark.

 Serving as pallbearers will be Stephen Clark, Chailey Jo Clark., Brandon Wright, Chase Clark, Chance Clark, and Jenna Wright.

  Arrangements are in the care of Nave Funeral Home, (931) 289-4277, NaveFuneralHomes.com.