Abstract
Alice Mary Clark begins her interview by briefly describing her childhood on Charlesfield Street in Providence, Rhode Island. There is some trouble with the recording and Clark picks up with an anecdote of a post-graduation opportunity in the speech department with Sock and Buskin director, Janice Vanderwater. She explains her love of speech and elocution, and briefly mentions one year of studies at Columbia University and Salve Regina.
The interviewer incites a discussion of the difficulties for women to maintain a career and have children in the 1980s and Clark shares her experience of working while in labor in 1948. Clark goes on to discuss establishing the Pembroke College Junior Club, and participating in the Parent Teacher Association and Barrington’s Junior Women’s Club. She concludes the interview by explaining the legislative actions she was working on to prevent teen pregnancy, detailing her various volunteer positions, and emphasizing the importance of women’s volunteerism.
Part 1
Part 2
Recorded on September 12, 1989 in Newport, RI
Interviewed by Karen M. Lamoree
Suggested Chicago style citation: Clark, Alice Mary. Interview. By Karen M. Lamoree. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. September 12, 1989.
Biography
Alice Mary Clark was born on November 25, 1924 in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduating from Saint Francis Xavier Academy, she earned her A.B. in French from Pembroke College in 1946. In addition to her work as an educator, Clark served as International President of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, and was involved with the Pembroke Alumnae Association, the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. She married Thomas H. Donahue III ’45, with whom she had two children.