Buddy Clark

I was born in 1935 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where my father was stationed in the Army at nearby Ft. Bragg. Although we moved from the area while I was still an infant and as a family we never lived in that state again, my being born there turned out to be the event that was largely responsible for shaping my adult life. For some reason, I considered North Carolina my home state, and when it became time to select a college, as a high school senior living near Louisville, Kentucky, I decided to enroll at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Though I had lived in Pensacola, Florida, years longer than anywhere else, it was not the home town of either of my parents and I never considered it mine.

Why the big deal on attending UNC? Because that is where I met and fell in love with Carolyn Corley, my wife of fifty-seven years. To this day I don’t know what drew us together. While I could make a long list of compelling attributes that Carolyn had, I still don’t know what attracted her to me. She was in so many ways far out of my league. She was intellectually brilliant, a “straight A” student, while I received mostly B’s and C’s with an occasional A. She was beautiful, with a warm, outgoing personality. I was at best average in looks and more of an introvert. She had no interest in athletics, whereas I was a basketball gym rat. Before she transferred to Carolina to pursue a career in broadcasting, she had lived all her life in South Carolina, rarely taking out-of-state trips. I, on the other hand, had lived in several different states and spent almost three years in high school in Munich, Germany, where Dad was stationed in the Army.

But Carolyn and I did have a few things in common. We and our parents were Southerners, her folks born and raised in South Carolina, mine in Alabama. My mother was a stickler on proper manners and taught me to always show respect to any female, regardless of age. Because of this I became known as a “safe” date. And we both loved to dance.

Whatever combination of differences and similarities attracted us to each other, we ended up with a wonderful life together. Call it fate, kismet, whatever you wish. But it wouldn’t have happened if I had been born a few months later, after my parents left North Carolina. To my mother and father, a belated thank you, thank you, thank you.

Carolyn began her broadcasting career as “Miss Virginia Lee” on an NBC affiliate radio station in Richmond, Virginia, immediately after college graduation. She continued as a radio personality in Atlanta, where we settled after marrying in 1959. We soon started a family and she retired to become a full-time mother. As I began a long career in retailing that took us to Maryland, Tennessee, Minnesota and New York, Carolyn resumed her career when the children were older, this time writing advertising copy for newspapers, direct mail and television.

When both children had left home for college, we didn’t suffer the “empty nest” syndrome, but bonded even closer, taking advantage of living wherever we were, exercising our love of fine art and music by visiting museums and attending performances of symphony orchestras and the theater.

We returned to Atlanta as co-owners of our fine jewelry store, retiring in 2005 and moving to Lady’s Island, South Carolina, just across the bridge from Beaufort. Beau, my sweet four-legged companion, and I still live here, enjoying our little corner of paradise, missing Carolyn every day.