An Acclaimed Artist
Lillie Clark was born and raised in the Springfield community. As she says, she was rolling around in all the red clay dirt roads and climbing trees before she could even write her name. She lived in Springfield until she married and moved to Campbellton, Florida with her family. After high school, Lillie worked at the Marianna Convalescence Center, a non-profit nursing facility. The facility motivated her to attend nursing school in Chipley, Florida, and become a licensed nurse practitioner.
Lillie Clark and her family have hosted a family reunion every November for the past 50 years. It started as a way to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday. As more and more people came to attend, the event was renamed “Family and Friends Day.” Today, more than 400 people attend the reunion. Her mother starts preparing food and freezing meals in preparation for the event as early as October. The day is an opportunity to meet new people and share stories with one another while celebrating family over music and food.
“The youth felt like they were important, like they were not forgotten.”
Lillie Clark
Artist and Gallery Owner
Today, Lillie Clark continues to live in Campbellton. She owns and operates a small non-profit gallery in Springfield known as LMC (Lillie Mae Clark) Impressions, Incorporated. She opened the gallery in 2011, a year before she retired from her nursing career. In the past, the gallery has hosted after-school activities and summer programs to bring fun, educational experiences to kids. In the future, Ms. Clark hopes to expand these efforts to attract new visitors to the gallery to educate tourists on the local community’s history and heritage.
Her dream is for the gallery to be utilized as a community center where people of all ages can have access to education and an outlet for creative expression of various forms, from painting to spoken word. She is an artist herself who expresses herself in a multitude of different media. From acrylic paints to wood carvings to landscapes painting and portraits drawn in pencil, it is clear that her passion for community comes to life in her art. Various pieces of her artwork are displayed on the walls of the Springfield Schoolhouse Museum showcasing depictions of black prominent figures, local landmarks, and black cultural life.
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