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Elizabeth "Libby" Clark (1917 or 1918 – January 23, 2012) was an African-American journalist whose accomplishments included founding a magazine in Los Angeles, working as a newspaper writer, and forming her own public relations firm.

Early years

A native of Chester, Pennsylvania, Clark was one of at least six children born to Samuel W. Clark and Emily G. Smith.

Clark was a graduate of Columbia University.

Career

In 1954, Clark launched FEM magazine, a publication that was directed toward women, with a focus on African Americans. Clark said then that besides being informative for readers, she wanted the publication to make potential advertisers aware of the multi-million-dollar purchasing potential of African American women.

Clark wrote for the Chester Times and worked in the West Coast bureau of the Pittsburgh Courier. She later wrote about food and social issues for the Los Angeles Sentinel for 50 years. Her column, "Food For Thought," which injected political awareness into food articles for a grass roots audience, was syndicated in 150 newspapers by Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. From 1989 to 1994, she published "The Plum Book," an annual ‘Who’s Who’ in the Los Angeles/Southern California black community, and distributed it freely to politicians and community leaders as a community resource. She also edited and co-wrote the Black Family Reunion Cookbook, which sold more than 250,000 copies and made best-seller lists in 1991. In 1951, the University of Southern California (USC) designated Clark as the journalist who would accompany a group of USC students on a two-month tour of Europe and report on the students' activities.

Clark also applied her journalistic skills to public relations when she became the first African-American licensed to own a public relations firm, Libby Clark Associates, in California; she went on to operate the firm for 50 years. In 1969, Los Angeles County hired her as the public information officer for the then-new Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital.

One of her public relations associates was the author, William Karl Thomas, who, in 2013, published a novel titled “Cleo,” based on his ten-year professional association with Miss Clark during the 1950s and 1960s. In it he describes her personal friendships with famous personalities Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, James Baldwin, Tom Bradley, Leo Branton, and others. He also includes excerpts from her 1960 coverage of the Nigerian Independence in Africa with excerpts from her interviews with Golda Meir, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and Princess Alexandra from England. Thomas’ publisher's website includes a sampling of his photography with photos of Libby Clark.

Recognition

When she was 85 years old, Clark received the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1992, she was honored with a benefit dinner in recognition of her five decades of service to journalism. Funds raised at the event went to the McGarrity Memorial African-American Scholarship Fund, which helps African-American students. The evening included "proclamations from many of California's most prominent politicians praising her for years of service to the community."

Personal life

Clark was married four times: in 1942 to Samuel William, a steel worker and pool hall owner in Chester, Pennsylvania, until they divorced in 1947; in 1955 to Walter Stanley, an aircraft worker and gas station owner in Los Angeles, whose marriage was annulled in 1956; in 1970 to Jim Allen, a major building contractor who had been a public relations client for 10 years and who died 8 months after their marriage of a brain injury sustained while inspecting a sub-division he was building; and on December 30, 1977 to John E. Fegan,who owned a chain of tuxedo rental stores, whose marriage was annulled after one year. During the decade from 1957 to 1967, she maintained a professional and personal relationship with the author, William Karl Thomas, who was fifteen years her junior.

Death

Clark died of Alzheimer's disease in Inglewood, California, in 2012.

References

1. Pleasant, Betty (February 8, 2012). "Libby Clark, former Courier reporter and pioneering Black journalist dies". Variety. p. B5. ProQuest 923726213. Funeral services for Libby Clark, the Grande Dame of the Black press, were held Jan. 30 in the Chapel of Roses at the Simpson Funeral Home in Inglewood. Clark, believed to have been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, died in her sleep on Jan. 23. She was 94 years old.
2. "Obituaries: Samuel W. Clark, 72". Delaware County Daily Times. July 7, 1962. p. 4. Retrieved 16, April 2023.
3. "Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KHN4-8ZL : 5 August 2020), Samuel W Clark and Emily G Smith, 31 Jul 1911; citing Marriage, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States, multiple County Clerks, Pennsylvania.
4. "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFRP-VJY : 3 February 2021), Samuel Clark, 1920.
5. "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHSZ-WJL : accessed 16 April 2023), Samuel Clark, Chester, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 34, sheet 9B, line 60, family 202, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2030; FHL microfilm 2,341,764.
6. ^ "Libby Clark, Veteran Black Press Food, Religion Writer, Dies at 94". AFRO. The AFRO-American Newspapers. February 4, 2012. Archived from the original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
7. "Libby Clark to Publish FEM, New Magazine for the Girls". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. February 27, 1954. p. 10. Retrieved 31 December 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
8. The: Black Family Reunion Cookbook. Simon and Schuster. 1993. p. viii. ISBN 9780671796297. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
9. "Courier Staffer Ready To Depart for Europe". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. June 23, 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 31 December 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
10. ^ Fleischer, Matthew (February 2, 2012). "Trailblazing Black Female Journalist Libby Clark Dies at 94". AdWeek. Archived from the original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
11. "Cleo, a civil rights erea novel". www.mediamaestro.net. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
12. "Gala Fund-Raiser Honors L.A. Sentinel Newspaper Food Editor Libby Clark". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. October 5, 1992. p. 54. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
13. Johnson, Chalk (December 31, 1955). "What Happened in the World of Women Makes Good News". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 12. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
14. Crawford, Chazz (December 1, 1955). "Soundtrack: Newsboy's Nightcaps". California Eagle. p. 9. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
15. "People and Places". California Eagle. January 12, 1956. p. 11. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
16. Brown, Jessie Mae (February 12, 1970). "Your Social Chronicler". Los Angeles Sentinel. p. C2. ProQuest 564958874. Speaking of Cupid, etc., ye old Chronicler has the pleasure of revealing the marriage news this week of Libby Clark and Jim Allen The popular pair decided to join the marital ranks a few Sundays ago, and hied off to Tulare, where Jim's brother Rev. Andrew Lee Allen read the vows.
17. "Builder Dies Following Accident". Los Angeles Sentinel. October 8, 1970. p. A1. ProQuest 564942073. Building contractor James T. Allen died Wednesday at LAC/USC Medical Center following an accident that necessitated two brain operations. Allen was the husband of Libby Clark, nationally known public relations consultant. The couple had been married only eight months.
18. "Clark, Fegan Reception Attracts Friends, Leaders". Los Angeles Sentinel. February 8, 2012. p. C5. ProQuest 565223831. The event honored the well known couple's recent marriage, on December 30, 1977 in Chester. Active in communications and civic circles in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, the bride is Elizabeth 'Libby' Clark, a nationally known journalist and public relations consultant. Mr. Fegsan, member of a large and prominent family with varied businesses in Los Angeles, owns and operates several tuxedo-formal wear stores in the Crenshaw area.

• 2012 deaths
• Journalists from Pennsylvania
• Columbia University alumni
• American book editors
• African-American women journalists
• African-American journalists
• 20th-century African-American people
• 21st-century African-American people
• 20th-century African-American women
• 21st-century African-American women