Donna Darlene Clark Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Donna Darlene (Lee) Clark was born January 31st, 1951 in Challis, Idaho to Elethia June (Matthews) Lee and George Bert Lee. Donna is the 6th child of her family. She grew up in Challis, Idaho and lived there many years. She grew up learning how to work hard with her father and siblings putting up fences, some of which you can still see lining the highways of Challis and the surrounding areas. She graduated from Challis High School in 1969. After serving her mission, she moved to South Bend, Washington to live with her sister Marie. She started pursuing her Associate’s degree as an executive secretary at Grays Harbor Community College, and later received her degree from North Seattle Community College. Donna was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a youth when she was introduced to The Church by a friend. She served a mission for The Church in Ontario, Canada at the age of 34. She continued faithfully as a member of The Church the rest of her life. Donna loved her family. She was married and sealed to her eternal “honey” Harlow Clark on September 5th, 1987 in the Idaho Falls Temple. They lived in Seattle, WA, and after 4 years of trying to have kids, they were blessed with their one and only child, Matthew. Donna, Harlow, and Matthew moved from Seattle shortly after Matthew was born, to Provo, UT and lived with Harlow’s parents for almost 2 years. When Matthew was around 2, they moved to Pleasant Grove, UT and have lived there ever since. Donna spent much of her time caring for her husband, son, friends, and neighbors, and would continue doing so even when she wasn’t feeling well. Starting in her youth, Donna babysat for friends and neighbors and continued doing so her whole life. She started babysitting a tiny baby named Jessie at just a few months old, and continued tending Jessie for the remainder of Donna’s life. She would often refer to Jessie saying “She’s my girl.” Donna loved to serve others and was part of Scouting for over 10 years. She loved to craft and sew, and spent many days with her friends sewing, chatting, learning and having a fun time. She also served as a humanitarian coordinator in the Pleasant Grove, UT stake, where she would go faithfully to a weekly humanitarian group as often as she could. She was a talented artist and could draw or paint practically anything she could see. In her free time, she was likely watching or listening to the Hallmark channels, many times while making crafts or doing service. When Calls the Heart was her favorite series, along with reality shows Survivor, Bachelor/Bachlorette, and Amazing Race. She also loved westerns, especially those starring John Wayne. Call of the Wild was a favorite story of hers as well. Recently, she had started watching crafting streamers from across the country, including her favorite, Barb from The Shabby Tree, whose videos, along with many others, she would always share (or “sprinkle” as the streamers would say) on her Facebook. She also discovered Paparazzi jewelry through friends that she enjoyed watching and purchasing from. She loved to support them, and over the past couple years acquired quite the collection of jewelry pieces. Donna loved ladybugs. They were a part of her décor on a regular basis, and she always loved finding them in nature. Donna loved animals, and even though she was somewhat allergic, adopted 4 cats over the years into our family. She loved our current kitties Molly and Ginny immensely. Donna struggled with countless health problems over the years. While on her mission, it was discovered that she would need to have her gallbladder removed, which she waited until after her mission to do. She had a heart murmur that she knew of for most of her life, as well as lymphedema in her arms and legs, which caused her to retain a ton of fluid. The many medications she needed made losing weight a huge challenge. In 2017, Donna had a bleeding ulcer for which she was hospitalized and lost half of her blood supply. Not long after, she began meeting with a nutritionist and found out all kinds of information that helped her to live healthier. She started walking around the neighborhood a little at a time, and was walking around 2-3 miles on a daily basis for a long time, which she loved to track on her FitBit. She was also attending physical therapy where she was able to get help with her lymphedema and work on her strength. Her favorite part was the pool at the physical therapist, where she could do all sorts of exercises, which was something she enjoyed doing in years past by attending water aerobics at the local pools. She was working very hard to become healthy, and received support from her family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers she would meet while out walking; some of whom also became friends. Things started going downhill back in December of 2020, when we rushed to the emergency room after a doctor called at 3:30am and told us there was a blood clot. There ended up not being a clot, but they did find an aneurysm. The next day, they met with a cardiovascular surgeon, and initially scheduled her surgery for December 30th, 2020. The hospital rescheduled her for the 8th of January and after what was her 3rd Covid test (which she dreaded each and every time) we went in to begin pre-op registration. We were told that the surgery had been cancelled due to the doctor being sick, and they would need to reschedule after he was free of symptoms and returned. This caused her surgery to be rescheduled again for January 20th, 2021. She was nervous, yet not afraid, of the surgery, and would say to us “Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot more to do here. I’m not going anywhere.” What was supposed to be a same-day surgery where she should have been able to go home the next day, took a turn for the worse. She was tragically taken from us due to complications of surgery on January 21, 2021, just 10 days shy of her 70th birthday. She is survived by her husband Harlow Clark, her Son Matthew Clark, and her siblings Georgia Skinner, LeRoy Lee (June), Bonnie Busse, Ray Lee, Tom Lee (Sharon Fix) and Marie Lian (Joe). She is preceded in death by her father George Bert Lee, her mother Elethia June Matthews Lee, and her sister Elma May Lee. A Funeral Service will be held on Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 11:00 am at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel located at 828 South Locust Avenue, Pleasant Grove, Utah. In person attendance is by invitation only. CLICK HERE TO VIEW FUNERAL SERVICES VIA ZOOM Or join by phone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 929 205 6099 Webinar ID: 969 3902 1285 International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/adzxpuRuBe Funeral Directors: Utah Valley Mortuary

Donna Darlene Clark

January 31, 1951 - January 21, 2021

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