- Details
- Category: Current Issue
Martha Clark
EASTFORD — Martha Clark died Oct. 20, 2023. She was born Feb. 20, 1928, in Westford, the daughter of Nathan and Lina (Wheeler) Armitage.
She attended the Westford Hill School, the Ashford Academy, Windham High School, and UConn where she studied home economics. She attended her first dress review when she was 10 and later the state dress review. She met her husband at an Eastford/Ashford Christian Endeavor meeting. She sewed a dress she wore to Darwin’s Senior prom and sewed her own wedding dress.
She was a member of the Westford Congregational Church and, for 75 years, a member of the Congregational Church of Eastford. She was shepherded through 4-H by her aunt Clara, and was active in the Ashford Grange, UConn Home Extension Service, Eastford Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary, The Whiton Family Association, and the Congregational Church of Eastford where she sang in the choir. She was a 4-H leader for several decades to dozens of young women in Eastford. She also sewed wedding and bridesmaid dresses, and a multitude of quilts for many of her friends and their children. She drove a truck when needed for her family business, was an avid reader, and a pretty good bowler. She enjoyed baking cookies, her quilters group, and the annual road trips the family took with their tent camper, and she traveled to 48 states.
After her children were away from home, she worked at the Eastford Post Office well into her 70s. She especially enjoyed cooking for a crowd or making cookies with three generations of children. It was not unusual for her to single handedly feed more than a dozen people in her home on short notice. For more than 70 years her home was a welcome gathering place for friends and family just wanting to stop for a chat, a coffee, cookies, or in need of a place to stay for a night, a month, or longer. She was a powerful force that will be missed.
She leaves two sons, William and his companion Connie DeWitt, Robert (Janet); a daughter, Mary Lou Fuller; grandchildren, Donavon Clark, Joanne (and Joe) Post, Jessi (and Dan) Dombrowski, Regan Clark and Nathan Clark, and four great-grandchildren Julia and Jenna Post, and Caleb and Lucas Dombrowski, a sister-in-law Charlene Armitage; nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband, Darwin, her brothers Bud and Gilbert, a son-in-law Richard Fuller, and daughter-in-law Agnes Clark.
The funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Oct. 28 at Westford Congregational Church, 368 Westford Hill Road, Ashford, with a reception to follow. All are welcome to bring a quilt made by Martha to the church. Burial is private. Donations: Congregational Church of Eastford, P.O. Box 177, Eastford, CT. Gilman Funeral Home & Crematory, 104 Church St., Putnam, CT 06260.
.