Belle LaVerne Harrell ^{1 2 3}

  General Notes:

She held a Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas Woman's University and a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. She wrote and published under the name LaVerne Harrell Clark. She also was a widely published photographer.

She had six books of fiction and nonfiction: They Sang for Horses, a nonfiction classic about Navajo and Apache lore and mythology. Keepers of the Earth, about a small Texas town modeled after her native Smithville. The Deadly Swarm and Other Stories, short story collection.

In 1962, she became the founding director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

She also was the editor/photographer of 2 companion books, which include poems and biographies of contemporary poets, most of whom are Americans: The Face of Poetry, and Focus 101.

She was living in Tucson, Arizona, in 1992.

LaVERNE HARRELL CLARK

Funeral for LaVerne Harrell Clark was conducted at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 1, 2008 at the First Presbyterian Church in Smithville. Arrangements were under the direction of the Marrs-Jones Funeral Home in Smithville.

LaVerne Harrell Clark, born June 6, 1929, to James Boyce Harrell and Bell Bunte Harrell, died on Feb. 24, 2008. She was a noted author and photographer, with a record of many accomplishments and honors. She began her writing career even as an undergraduate at Texas Woman's University, where she served as editor of the Daily Lass-O and received her B.A. degree there in 1950. She soon went to New York and filled various positions in the publishing world, such as writing for the American Scandinavian Review, working in sales and advertising at the Columbia University Press and in promotion-news for the Episcopal Diocese Bulletin. Later she came back to Texas to work as a reporter and photographer on the Fort Worth Press. While in New York she continued her studies at Columbia, where she met L.D. Clark, another student and also a Texan who became an author. They were married on September 15, 1951, in Smithville. He survives her.

LaVerne's first book, "They Sang for Horses", a study of Navajo and Apache horse mythology, was published by the University of Arizona Press and won the University of Chicago Folklore Prize for 1967. Except for brief intervals, this book has been in print ever since, and in time recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a classic in Native American studies. In 1962, LaVerne became the founding director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and began exploring in writing and photography the poetry of the 1960s and 1970s, later publishing "The Face of Poetry and Focus 101". All along she continued to examine the works of Mari Sandoz, on which she in time produced Mari Sandoz's Native Nebraska. She kept up the writing of fiction too, leading to "The Deadly Swarm and Other Stories" and a novel, "Keepers of the Earth", which earned for her the Best First Novel Award from Western Writers of America in 1996.

LaVerne always went on, too, with graduate studies in her different fields. She received an M.A. in English and Anthropology in 1962 from the University of Arizona, and an M.F.A in Creative Writing there in 1992. Among her other honors, she was a grantee of the American Philosophical Society, a member of PEN, was chosen as a Distinguished Alumna of Texas Woman's University, and a few years ago selected for inclusion in Who's Who in America. She was recently elected to membership in the Texas Institute of Letters.

Although she spent numerous years in New York and Arizona, LaVerne always retained and at length returned to her roots in Texas, coming from a family that dates back seven generations to the original Austin colony.

Donations may be made to the First Presbyterian Church; 300 Burleson Street; Smithville, TX 78957.

Source: Gainesville Daily Register

  Additional Information:

• Alt. Birth, 7 Jun 1929. ⁵ LaVerne recorded 6 Jun 1929 in her book, The Bunte Family History, and Social Security also had that date.

• FindAGrave: Memorial# 54349378.

Belle married L. D. Clark, son of Thomas Hicklin Clark and Ruby Lucille Loyd, on 15 Sep 1951 in Smithville, Bastrop County, Texas. (L. D. Clark was born on 22 Oct 1922 in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas,⁶ died on 19 Mar 2014 in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas and was buried on 24 Mar 2014 in Smithville, Bastrop County, Texas.)