CLARA LAURA ARTHUR, 1916-2017Born in 1916 to Italian immigrants, Clara was the second oldest of 8 children. As a Depression Era family, the Mercatante’s tended their vegetable gardens, slaughtered their own chickens, stomped grapes for home-made wine, wore clothes made from any handy material, and lived as thousands of other immigrant families did on Detroit’s East Side – “poor” by the standards of others, but not by them. As the eldest daughter, she helped raise her 6 younger brothers and sisters while dealing with the conflicting nature of life in a strict Italian household vs that offered in the “New World”. This dynamic was probably what caused her to break with tradition and strike out on her own shortly after graduating from high school; moving into a woman’s boarding house, taking bookkeeping classes, and working part-time jobs to send money home. Even during the height of the Depression and the beginnings of WWII, her natural math skills got her full-time employment when others couldn’t find work; a feat made even more amazing because women working outside of the home were unheard of at that time and Italian girls were expected to stay home and help their mothers until they got married. Clara had always been fascinated by the beauty of horseback riding and, now having money that she had earned and could spend on herself, she started going to a riding academy to rent a horse and take lessons. And it was here that she met her future husband. Dick and Clara married in 1942 and moved to New Jersey where he was a draftsman for a defense contractor. Shortly before the end of the war his work brought them back to Detroit and they moved into a flat on the West Side and had their only child; Michael. After moving out to Livonia in 1956, and with their child now in middle-school, Clara once again entered the job market under a program at Ford Motor that encouraged the hiring of “older women” (I can still hear her laugh at that); a company she would eventually retire from after 20 years. She often joked that they had to pay her for more years as a retiree than they did while she worked for them – her revenge for the “older woman” nonsense!She traveled to Europe several times and enjoyed an active retirement with her husband until his passing in 2005. Her continued love for anything math made her an enthusiastic day-trader in the early 90’s and she tore through books of Sudoku puzzles right up until her passing at 101 years young. Convinced that she was born 40 years too soon, she was an independent and spirited life force that lived on her own terms right up until the end.Clara was preceded in death by her brothers Phillip, Earnest, and Raymond; her sisters Rose and Elenore; and her husband Richard. She is survived by her brother Victor, her sister Sophia, her son Michael and his wife Suzanne, her granddaughter Jennifer and her husband Josh, her grandson Spencer, and numerous nieces and nephews.Rest eternal, grant unto her O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. May her soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed in Christ, Rest in Peace. Amen.
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