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Carol Ruth (Klay) Clark, 78

| December 31, 2008 1:00 AM

Carol Ruth (Klay) Clark, 78, passed away of natural causes on Dec. 28, 2008, at a Missoula Extended Care Facility.

Carol was born Dec. 4,1930, in Great Falls to Lawrence and Cora Klay. She has one surviving sister.

She graduated from high school in Great Falls in 1949.

Carol married Kenneth Nelson Clark on June 13,1949, and lived on a wheat farm just north of Fort Benton near the Goose Bill. They had four children. She lived there until 1975, when her husband Kenneth passed away. She then lived in Chester for a while and worked at the nursing home there.

She moved to Helena to be closer to her son, Bruce, and worked as a caregiver for many years, taking care of Jane Tobin as a personal care attendant for many years.

Carol moved to Kalispell in 1987, where she retired and was involved in several activities. She had some health problems and moved to Missoula in 1999 to be close to her daughter, Nancy, where she lived in an assisted living facility.

Carol had a love for birds and music. She was a caregiver, a homemaker, had been retired for many years and had a love of the Lord. She loved to sing, and it wasn't uncommon to see her playing her records and dancing around in her apartment in Missoula. You could often see her writing letters to her friends she had left behind, and she tried to keep in touch with them.

She is survived by one sister, Margaret Klay Carver; four children, Nancy Clark Rishoff of Missoula, Ruth Clark Warner of Abbottstown, Pa., Ella Clark Jones of Chester, and Bruce Clark of Missoula; eight grandchildren, Marvin Rishoff of Trinidad, Calif., Cindy Rishoff of Kalispell, Richelle Warner Simerly of Abbottstown, Renee Warner Snyder of Dover, Pa., Ryan Warner of East Berlin, Pa., Brent Clark of Billings, Mitchell Clark of Bozeman, and Matthew Clark of Missoula; and five great-grandchildren, Hunter Snyder, Ethan Snyder, Callie Simerly, Austin Warner and Morgan Warner.

She was well-loved by all of her many friends and family and will be missed by everyone she touched in her life. She will always be remembered as the sweet lady with a great sense of humor and a song in her heart.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 3, at the Benton Funeral Home in Fort Benton, with a reception to follow after the service. Burial will be afterward in Riverside Cemetery.