Clara E. Clark, 74, who was one of the first black women personnel directors in Chicago, died Sunday at her Chicago home. She had lived on the South Side most of her life. Born in Cairo, Ill., Mrs. Clark moved to Chicago in early childhood and graduated from Englewood High School. In the early 1950s, she became personnel director of the South Center Department Store on 47th Street, at a time when virtually no black women in the city held management positions of any type, said her nephew, Walter Wilborn. In her work, as in her life, she set high standards for herself and others, Wilborn recalled. “She was very unassuming and she demanded a lot of respect and wanted you to do things the correct way,” he said. “Clara was like a mentor to a lot of people,” said Dolores Woods, who was hired by Mrs. Clark at 16 for her first job as a sales clerk at South Center and went on to become secretary to Mayor Harold Washington. “She was a very brilliant woman and she had a way of combining that with charm,” Woods said. Later, Mrs. Clark became director of volunteer services at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, retiring from that position in 1983. She is survived by a daughter, Denise “Poppy” Mayes; a son, Edward D. Clark III; a brother, Jackie Robinson; and 32 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Visitation will be Friday night at Leak & Sons, 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave.; friends may call the funeral home, 773-846-6567, for the time. Visitation will also be held from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by services, in the Jubilee CME Temple, 114 E. 59th St..
