Mary Carolyn (Corley) Clark

Lady's Island, SC.

Mary Carolyn (Corley) Clark, beloved wife of Carey (Buddy) Clark, passed away on April 1st at her home on Lady’s Island after a long illness. Carolyn was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on January 13, 1936, the first daughter of Samuel Rexford Corley and Mary Kathleen Jefferies Corley. She graduated from high school in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 1953, attended Winthrop College for two years and transferred to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Carolyn worked at WUNC radio and in 1957 earned a BA degree in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduating, Carolyn took a job in Richmond, Virginia, as personality “Miss Virginia Lee” at radio station WLEE. In January 1959, Carolyn married Carey A. (Buddy) Clark and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and joined WSB radio as a copywriter and on-air personality, a position she held until 1961, when she retired from radio to raise a family. In subsequent years, her children in school, Carolyn reentered the job market, first part time and then full time, writing advertising copy for department stores and mail order houses. In 1990, she and her husband opened C. Alexander’s , a fine jewelry store in Atlanta and then Dunwoody, GA, closing in 2005 to retire. They moved to Beaufort, where Carolyn fulfilled her lifelong dream of having the perfect job, as a tour guide of historic Beaufort, a position she held for several years until her illness prevented her from continuing.

Carolyn is survived by Carey A. Clark, her husband of 57 years, her daughter, Kathy Cahill of Atlanta, GA, son, Dr. Carey A. Clark III and three grandchildren of Tyler, TX and her sister, Eleanor Salley of Bermuda Run, NC.

A memorial service will be held at Carteret Street United Methodist Church at 2 pm on Sunday, April 10th.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the local Alzheimer’s Association.

Low Country Cremation Services and Burial is serving the Clark family.