OBITUARY Charlotte Adele Smith November 14, 1919 – October 13, 2018 Charlotte Adele Marie Roseman Clark Smith was born November 14, 1919 in Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana. She lived on a farm with her 7 older siblings, mother and father. Her mother died when she was 6 and her older sisters and father raised the children.
There were 5 babies born after her that were still born or died soon after birth. The depression didn’t affect them very much because they made and grew their own needs. They almost always had some meat, potatoes, beans, and noodles at every meal.
The whole family ate together. Her mother and then her older sisters made the children’s clothes. The girls wore dresses at all times that were made of cotton and the length was in between the ankle and knee.
They had a large vegetable garden. They grew sweet potatoes, melons and cantaloupe. Her Dad took them into town and sold them.
He sold their tomatoes to a canning factory. They owned 80 acres, where wheat, corn, sweet potatoes and tomatoes were grown. They had 10-12 chickens, 4-5 pigs, and 4 cows.
They raised these for their food and to sell. They had 4 horses for the farm work and to ride. They sold milk to a truck that would come by and pick it up.
Her Dad made whiskey in the barn and sold it to bars in town. He made a leather box on the truck to deliver it at night. When his still was discovered, his son, Leroy took the blame and went to jail for 6 months.
The girls wore their hair about shoulder length and some had bangs. The boys wore their hair short. Growing up their father had a 1919 Ford and than an Es.
Almost every Friday they would go into town to see a movie or get ice cream. The only actor Charlotte could remember seeing at the movie was Charlie Chaplin. The song she most enjoyed was “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me”.
She went to a Catholic school through the 8th Grade. She went to a 4-room schoolhouse and was taught by nuns. They walked about a mile to and from school.
The family moved to town when Charlotte was 16 (1935-36). She worked in a mirror factory (Hamilton Glass Co.). She washed and silvered the mirrors and became the Co-Floor Supervisor.
Her sisters Camilla and Pauline also worked there. She cooked behind the counter at a drug store. She didn’t do much dating, but when she did they just went to the movies.
She never had a curfew. Only one sister went to college, Camilla. It wasn’t very common to go to college.
Her father (Camille Joseph Roseman) worked for the Blackford Window Glass Company and blew the street lamp globes. Charlotte me Jim Clark in the drug store in 1940 and they were married on September 1, 1941. When world War II began in 1941, he went into the Army Air Corp and went to Florida for basic training and then went to Madison, Wisconsin.
She went to visit him there for 4 months. He was transferred to Fort Wayne, Indiana and she came home to Vincennes. Later they got an apartment in Fort Wayne.
She went to work at Woolworth’s Dime Store in the house wares department. Later she worked at Horton Manufacturing Company. Their washing machine factory had been turned into a bullet making factory for the war.
She made very large shells and stamped a mark on the bottom of small bullets. She did this for many months until the war was over. She moved back to Vincennes and Jim was transferred to George Fields in Lawrence, Illinois.
He got out of the service in 1945. Prior to the war, he had worked for Egry Register Company. After the war, he went back with them and moved to Akron, Ohio where they had a son, James Wade Clark.
They were transferred to Detroit, Michigan and had Mary Kathryn Clark in 1951. They were transferred to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1953, Prairie Village, Kansas in 1954 and Kansas City, Missouri in 1956. Jim began his own company, J.A. Clark Business Forms Company in 1961.
They were married for 41 years when he died on September 9, 1982. She then married Bob Smith in 1985 and they were married for 17 years. Bob died on October 22, 2002.
Charlotte was a life-time member of the American Legion Auxiliary for more than 65 years.
If you found any mistakes, or you would like to add/remove to this obituary, please contact us by email: info@obituary.memorial. We never ask money for this.
