Bio-Clark, Roscoe

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Roscoe Conkling Clark
(1877-1956)

Roscoe Conkling Clark was born on Sept. 27, 1877 near Laredo, Grundy County, MO, the son of George "William" and Helen (White) Clark. He was an early certified public accountant (CPA) for what became the accounting giant of Peat Marwick (now KPMG), and founded its office in Memphis, TN.

His 1931 visit to the old Minor and White homesteads in Ohio has provided information and photographs which otherwise would have been lost to history.

Roscoe grew up on his parents' farm. As an adult, he was tall, with a medium build, and light blue eyes with light brown hair.

In September 1902, he married Bertha Longfellow (1878-1909) of Jamesport, MO. Said to be a descendant of famous American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, she was a graduate of the Missouri Wesleyan College, where she majored in music, and where she is thought to have met Roscoe.

They had two children -- Carl William Clark and Helen Frances Clark.

Their life together was tragically short. On Sept. 17, 1909, after just seven years of marriage, the 31-year-old Bertha died, and is buried at Jamesport.

Roscoe remarried in 1911, to Alma Bennett Longshore (1891- ? ). She was born on July 6, 1891, the daughter of Stephen A.D. and Sarah Margaret (Bennett) Longshore. They had one daughter, Rose Margaret Clark.

Alma was talented musically, and active in the Linden Avenue Christian Church.

After graduating from Missouri Wesleyan, Roscoe found employment as a bank cashier in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO. In September 1918, during the final months of World War I, he was required to register for the military draft. He stated his occupation as a cashier at the St. Joseph Gazette newspaper, located at 215 South Sixth Street in St. Joseph. Listed as his nearest relative was his married sister, J. Blanche Tarter.

Later, Roscoe became a CPA. He worked for Peat Marwick in Kansas City for five years, and then was transferred to Tennessee to open the firm's Memphis branch.

Downtown Memphis skyline

As his sister Blanche Tarter wrote of Roscoe in her 1971 history of the family:

...[He] was held in high esteem by all who knew him, [and his] good judgment was highly regarded. He served his church as an elder and as treasurer for many years. He served his community through civic clubs, and was active in the business societies of his profession."

In 1931, on a visit to the old Minor family homestead in Morrow County, OH, Roscoe, Alma and Rose visited the Bethel Cemetery near Cardington, and viewed the graves of his great-grandparents, Daniel and Peggy (Fluckey) Minor. They also photographed the old Luther White homestead, where "the original building was still standing and occupied by a tenant. The farm was then owned by Mrs. Myrtle Pringle Kelly…." The photo appears on the Minerd.com biography of Mahala (Minor) White.

Roscoe died on Oct. 6, 1956 at Memphis, and is buried in the Memphis Memorial Gardens. Alma's fate is unknown.

Son Carl founded the Clark Printing Co., Inc., of Kansas City in 1947. A landscape painter, Carl and his wife Lottie Mae retired and moved to Sun City, AZ, where he was president of the Sun City Town hall Art Club. Their son Carl William Clark Jr. took the reins as president of the family printing company, and published the landmark 1971 family volume, Ancestral and Chronological History and Lineage of the Family of Luther White and Mahala (Minor) White, Their Forbears and Descendants, 1665-1971.

Daughter Helen Rice worked in higher education as administrative assistant to the dean of two colleges at the University of Tennessee Medical Units at Memphis, while serving as chancellor pro tem. Helen's husband Frank Graham Rice was a commercial and industrial architect in Memphis for four decades, retiring in 1968.