What I have been working on this week.

My mother passed away on Sunday, and I was honored to write her obituary and her eulogy. I thought I would share them with y'all.
God bless you and yours
Deb Seely

Dura Mae Clark age 79, of Webb City MO passed away Sunday October 4th at Freeman Hospital. She was born on September 12th, 1930 in Texas, daughter of William Orville McGinnis, and Margaret Lackey McGinnis. Dura owned and operated several Wedding and formal wear businesses over the last forty-five years in Topeka, Kansas; Miami, OK; Joplin, MO; and Grove OK. She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, Jack McGinnis and Don McGinnis and her husband, Richard Clark. She is survived by one daughter, Deborah Seely of Webb City, MO and two sons, Dan Clark of Joplin, MO and David Clark of Joplin MO. She was known as "Nana" to her five grandchildren; Devon, John and Bailey Seely of Webb City, MO; Alec Burd and Kane Clark of Joplin MO. Visitation will be at Parker Mortuary on Wednesday, October 7th from six o'clock to seven o'clock in the evening. Funeral services will be at College Heights Christian Church on Thursday, October 8th at 1:00 in the afternoon with interment at G.A.R. cemetery in Miami OK










When we were growing up in a tiny town called Harveyville Kansas we lived in a big farm house. Now this town was not far away from Topeka and right in the middle of tornado alley. I can remember one night when I was six, Dan was 5 and David would have been 3. There was a tornado warning and mom had shuffled us all down into the basement to wait the storm out. She sat at the head of the stairs to keep an eye on the TV. We must have gotten upset or scared because the next thing I can remember was mom kneeling on the ground in front of the lantern all hunched over, her hands above her head making a shadow in the shape of a camel on the wall. She was terrified of storms but she loved us all so much and didn't want us to be scared so she put her own fear aside to comfort us. Those of you that knew our mom well, know what love and devotion it took for her to kneel on a dirt floor just to entertain three scared children. But that was typical of our mom, she was very devoted to us.
Mom was one of the bravest women that knew. I found out just recently that she had panic attacks and phobias for the last thirty years or so, but I did not know that until she told me. She faced fear head on each day just so she could take care of all of us. Not only did she take care of her three children and her husband, but her brother and his son lived with us for a while and she took care of her father during his last days.
Mom was one of the hardest working people I ever saw too. There were days when she would work all day and then once we kids were in bed, she would go back to work and stay there until it was time to come home and wake us up to get ready for school . Mom started out working for Witcher Studios in Topeka Kansas, and later on opened up the Dura Clark studio after she met and married our dad. That studio later on morphed into the Bridal Boutique as the business changed to include formal wear and flowers as well. Later, after a move back to Miami OK, and then on to Joplin MO, the store became Special Occasions. All three of us kids worked for mom in her store, I met my husband there and Dan and his wife Brandon carried on the tradition for a time as well.
Our lives were not all peaches and cream, pretty much everyone here knows that. Nobody's family life is. Mom parented us the best she knew how. She came from very humble beginnings. She was born in a tent in Texas and she lived through some very rough things. But if there was one thing that our mother was, it was a lady. Dura Clark was from a time when there was a difference between a lady and a woman. Mom was a lady. She passed that down to us as well. I grew up knowing how to be a lady and my brothers grew up knowing how to be gentlemen, not that during the 80's we showed it. Now that we are, in turn, parents those lessons are coming back to us and it is my hope that we can teach those lessons that I know mom must have despaired of us ever learning. I am glad that of all the women in the world, that God chose Dura Mae McGinnis Clark to be my mom, I have been blessed. We all were.