Carolyn Mount Clark was born in Oregon City, Oregon, on November 18, 1920.
Carol attended Four Winds Camp in the 1930s and loved Orcas. After graduating from Scripps College in California, at the urging of her father who was then serving in WWII, she joined the Women’s Army Corps. Her last posting was at Camp Gordon, Georgia, where she was in charge of Motor Transport. She and her troops repaired all manner of Army vehicles, including tanks damaged in the European theater and sent back to Europe after repair.
During Carol’s three years as a WAC, she met Walter Clark, also a Second Lieutenant. They were married at Camp Gordon in December 1943. Their delayed honeymoon took them to Orcas where Carol’s older sister Jane and husband Lee Ammerman raised Angus cattle. On a whim, Carol and Walt bought a farm in Crow Valley from Donald Rheem, then the owner of Rosario. There they raised and showed registered Hereford cattle and Arabian horses. When Carol and Walt arrived to take over the farm in January 1946, they were met at the ferry dock by Oscar Carlson. He discovered that both were veterans, and immediately signed them up as new members of the local American Legion Post. The two remained active members – Walt until his death in 1979, Carol for 71 years.
Carol was a 4-H leader, Boy Scout merit badge advisor, and charter member of the Orcas Library and Orcas Island Yacht Club. She served on the Orcas Island School Board and the Washington State School Directors’ legislative committee, and was a member of the American Youth Horse Council.
In addition to civic activities, farming and oil painting, Carol lived a life rich with journeys. She traveled almost everywhere, missing only the Arctic. She rode in or on balloons, yaks, ostriches, horses, mules, motorcycles, elephants, Sherman tanks, tractors, tall ships and probably even camels. She came in fourth in the World’s First Downhill Slalom For Unlimited Class Bulldozers (Bill Carlson in his D-9 cat, racing a few feet behind her, tried to throw her off her game). She scuba dove in the Caribbean and at Guadalcanal.
Her last experience was taking the Honor Flight for WWII veterans to Washington, D.C., in October 2016. It was as if that trip was the last item on her to-do list, and then she departed at age 96 on December 11, 2016.
Carol is survived by her daughters Jerry Leone of Portland and Eastsound and Susan Fleischer (John) of Eastsound; grandchildren Jessica Rascon (Ivan) of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Blake Fleischer (Candy) of Atlanta, Georgia; brother John Mount of Eastsound and sister Anne Mount Hay of Eastsound and Portland. She leaves in her wake a number of nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews, countless friends and distant relatives who are astounded by Carol’s fearless and adventuresome life.
A memorial will be held at the American Legion Post in Eastsound in the spring. Donations in Carol’s memory may be made to your favorite charity or to the American Legion Voyle B. Martin Post 93, Scholarship Fund, 793 Crescent Beach Dr., Eastsound, Washington 98245.
