Sister Mary Virginia Clark, DC: 1926-2020

Amarillo—Daughters of Charity Sister Mary Virginia Clark, who founded the Downtown Women’s Center in 1989, passed away March 27 at the Daughters of Charity home in Evansville, Ind. She was 93 years old.
 
Graveside Services were conducted March 30 in Evansville.
 
Affectionately known as Ginny Girl by her siblings and Aunt Ginny by her nieces and nephews, Virginia Delores Clark was born April 3, 1926, the daughter of Ellen and Harry Clark. She was raised in the Webster Groves area of St. Louis. Clark attended the Academy of Visitation and began her vocation with the Daughters of Charity at the age of 22. According to her family, Sister Mary Virginia followed God’s call that embodied charity and love, being a true Christian in every sense of the word.
 
Sister Mary Virginia’s assignments were long-term and involved teaching for 15 years in various parts of the United States, including the Midwest, South and West Coast. She transitioned from teaching to helping the poor, joining with Jesuit Father Rick Thomas in serving the poor in El Paso and Ciudad, Juarez, Mexico.
 
In 1989, at the age of 58, when most people would be contemplating retirement, Sister Mary Virginia began a new chapter in her work of providing shelter for the neglected and maltreated by founding the Downtown Women’s Center in Amarillo.
 
According to the Daughters of Charity archives, in 1989, Sister Mary Virginia reached out to a friend to help
her purchase what is now the Downtown Women’s Center administrative office building and Abba House shelter. Sister Mary Virginia recorded the story this way:
 
“We had no money so we placed this intention before the Lord. An out-of-state friend responded to our phone call. After we discussed the price and purpose, he responded, “Let me read to you what I have just been reading from Proverbs 21:13. ‘If you refuse the poor when they have their hand out to you, I will refuse you when you have your hand out to me.’ The check will be in the mail.” On Sept. 18, 1989, the land and two run-down structures were sold to Downtown Women’s Center for $17,500.
 
She would lead the DWC until her retirement in 2001, when declining health brought her back to St. Louis, where she remained active in service to the poor.
 
Sister Mary Virginia was preceded in death by her mother and father, Ellen and Harry Clark; four sisters, Marybeth, Jane, Francey and Katy; a brother, Harry; a niece, Eileen Piccoli; and two nephews, Nicholas Clark and Andrew Clark.  
 
Survivors include a sister, Sister Mary Isabel Clark of the Visitation Monastery in Tyringham, Mass.; a niece, Lisa Clark; and a nephew, Matthew Clark.