Courtesy Opportunities INC
If you’ve ever said the phrase, ‘If I ever live to be one hundred years old’, this lady is your benchmark.
Clara Allen turns 100 years young today. She is a residential client of Opportunities, INC. Rebekah Drennon, the Development Director of Opportunities, INC, shares Ms. Clara’s storied history.
Clara Allen is a residential client at Opportunities Inc. Who turned 100 this year! She was born on May 24, 1920 in New Hamburg, MO and was raised by her parents. She had a sister and two brothers.
At the age of six, her family moved from Missouri to Texarkana where her daddy worked at Dickey Clay. They returned to Missouri for a few years, but settled in Texarkana. when Clara was 16, and she has been in Texarkana since.
A friend of Clara’s introduced her to Freddy at the age of 18. After dating about one year, Clara and Freddy married. Clara gave birth to four children, though she only raised two, she buried two in infancy. Freddy died in 1977, after 38 years of marriage. Clara was only 57 at the time of Freddy’s death, but she never remarried.
Clara had only a 7th grade education, and after Freddy’s death, Clara took a job working at the snack counter in the hospital. When that closed, she went to work in the kitchen, and later retired from the “pickle plant.”
Clara has nine grandchildren and “too many great-grandchildren to keep up.”
When asked why she thought she had lived so long, Clara attributes that to God’s grace and adds “I guess God just does not need me yet.”
We are reveling in Ms. Clara’s landmark birthday today. Happy and Blessed Birthday to you!
