Barbara Gail Clark Marshall died Thursday, June 22, 2023, in Tupelo, she was born on October 10, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois to Mary Kathleen Clark and Sim Stewart Clark. She grew up in Memphis and attended Whitehaven High School Class of 1970, from there she served in the Army Reserves and attended the University of Tennessee where she graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences in Nursing in 1975. Her career spanned 37 years, starting at the Shelby County Health Department, the Veterans Administration Hospital Spinal Cord Unit and later Baptist Memorial Hospital ICU.
On May 7, 1977, she married her best friend and soulmate Barry Marshall and together they had 2 girls and countless cats and dogs (and 1 bird). Her family was important to her, and she took an active role in her grandchildren’s lives, spending summers and weekends together as often as she could.
Family vacations to the Gulf Coast fueled her love of the beach early in her marriage to Barry. Their annual trips to the coast combined with her love of pottery and birds created her beloved aesthetic known to her family as “Barbaraland”. She will be remembered for this, along with her kind and generous heart, her keen sense of humor and wit, her green thumb and immense love of animals.
Barbara is survived by her devoted husband Barry and her children Emily (Robert) and Mary; her siblings Judie Conner and Kim Clark (Sissy), her mother Kathleen Clark, her grandchildren Reagan and Brady, her niece Andrea Sykes (Arty) and great niece Katy, extended family and friends and her loving pets Su and Mac. She is preceded in death by her father, Sim Clark.
“Remember when we said when we turned gray
When the children grow up and move away
We won’t be sad, we’ll be glad
For all the life we’ve had
And we’ll remember when”
-“Remember When”
Alan Jackson
The family will hold a private service to celebrate her life. She will be deeply missed, and her memory will live on forever in the hearts of those who knew and loved her.
In lieu of flowers, memorials in her memory may be made to Tunica Humane Society and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
