Mary DuBose Trice Clark (1879–1967) was born on Christmas day in Okalona, Mississippi. Her father was a bookkeeper and owned a mercantile business. Her mother was a teacher and later a principal when the family moved to Tupelo. After high school, she attended Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated in 1897 with a degree in music. In 1900, she married Robert Baker Clark, a banker who would become president of the Federal Landbank of Tupelo and later president of the Federal Landbank in New Orleans. Over her long life, Clark taught music, worked as a switchboard operator for the first telephone company in Tupelo, ran a dress shop, and raised five children.
