Wavalene Rae (Pyles) Clark

Wavalene Rae (Pyles) Clark, 1929-2022

Wavalene Rae (Pyles) Clark, 92, most recently of Hudson, WI, died at 5:33 am, January 30, 2022, at Hudson Hospital after a short battle with cancer. She was born May 29, 1929, in Waynesfield, Ohio, the youngest of four children of Clarence V. Pyles and Clara V. (Toland) Pyles.

Wavalene (Wava) was raised in Waynesfield and graduated from Waynesfield High School in 1947.  On a summer day in 1944, Wava was visiting her sister, Nettie, who took her along to deliver lunches to the men working in the farm fields.  There, Wava met Donald F. Clark, whose family lived next to Nettie. Not long afterward, Nettie played matchmaker and, under the false pretense of Nettie’s husband’s birthday, invited Wava and Don to the local amusement park so they could ride the roller coaster together. That was the beginning of a true love affair.  Don went into the army in 1945, and shortly after he returned home, he and Wava were married at Nettie’s house on August 9, 1947.

Don and Wava started their family in the small town of Waynesfield, OH, where Wava’s family lived. They engaged in the community, with Wava becoming a proud member of the Eastern Stars organization, and Don active in the Masons and the VFW.  With production at the army tank plant in Lima, OH where Don worked declining after the war, they moved to Dearborn, Michigan in 1958 so Don could continue his job with the federal government. In 1963, Don’s job took the family to Columbus, OH for a year, then back to Dearborn.

Wava was a homemaker, taking care of the house and three kids, as well as being active in PTA and as a volunteer at the Dearborn Health Department, particularly with the Child Health Clinic. When her kids were older, she started working at the local Hudson Department store. After retirement, she and Don started a snowbird life, spending winters in Florida, near Bradenton, where a number of their friends from Dearborn also had winter escapes. They also decided to move from Dearborn to Ohio where they had grown up and still had siblings and numerous nieces and nephews. At a rural intersection nicknamed Chipmunk Corner, near Huntsville, OH, they built a house not far from Nettie and other relatives. Situated on an old farmstead with outbuildings and surrounding fields and woods, the grandchildren loved to spend time there in the summers.

In 2002, Don and Wava sold both their Ohio and Florida residences and moved to New Richmond, WI to be near their children and grandchildren. Don’s health declined and Wava became a devoted caregiver to Don, who passed away on January 26, 2009. Wava continued to live in their home, where wonderful neighbors and frequent visits by family helped ease her sense of loss after losing an adored, and adoring, spouse of 61 years. In 2018, with her sons both moving to Hudson, WI and her daughter in nearby Afton, MN, Wava sold her New Richmond home and moved to an apartment at Woodland Hill senior residences in Hudson. She was an independent, fun loving, well-liked, much-loved daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend.

Wavalene was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Frederick Clark; her parents Clarence and Clara Pyles; her siblings Nettie (Pyles) Beard, Leonard Pyles, and Lloyd Pyles; her grandson Todd Clark; and her great granddaughter Mila Kalik.

She is survived by her three children & their spouses: Rodney and Laura (Hutson) Clark, Jeffrey and Anna Marie (Lopiccolo) Clark, and Melissa (Clark) and Joseph Kalik; seven grandchildren, Jason Clark, Colin Clark, Kamaya (Clark) Peterson, Timothy Kalik, Donald Kalik, and Alison Kalik; and five great grandchildren, Riley Kalik, Lauren Clark, Sienna Clark, Lucy Kalik, Mikayla Kalik, Mackenzie Kalik, and Makai Peterson.

Wava’s and Don’s ashes will be interred at the small cemetery in Huntsville, OH in the summer. Wavalene will be missed more than can be expressed in words.