Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
On June 1, Pearl Rexrode Clarkson showed up fashionably late for her birthday celebration – but in fairness to Pearl, when you’re celebrating your 100th birthday, you can pretty much do whatever you want.
Clarkson was joined by family and friends to celebrate the milestone and share stories of her century of life.
An Arbovale native, Clarkson had a unique childhood – a story she shared with The Pocahontas Times in 2014. When she was four-and-a-half years old, she had a terrible accident after a day of playing in the snow. She came into the family home to warm up by the wood stove and as she got close, her dress caught on fire.
Clarkson’s entire back and right arm were burned. She was rushed to Pocahontas Memorial Hospital and received a skin graft from her father. She spent six months in the hospital before returning home for her recovery.
Despite the burns and trauma, Clarkson said she went on to have a happy childhood.
As an adult, she married Russell Clarkson, of Cass, and they moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to work at the Glen Martin Aircraft Factory.
“I was a Rosie the Riveter at one time,” she said in 2014. “I was a riveter and all different kinds of things, but I wound up operating a drill press. I had to go to school there. I went to school six weeks for one thing and six weeks for another thing. I worked on planes and my husband did, too. We were in the same building.”
After working in Baltimore for three years, the couple returned to Pocahontas County. They settled in Arbovale and both got jobs at the Mower Lumber Company in Cass.
“I worked at the office for thirteen years until it closed down,” she said. “Russell was the dry kiln operator for Mower Lumber Company. He dried flooring for all over the world.”
Moving from one historic landmark in the county to another, Clarkson became an accountant at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank in 1960.
“When I started there, I was the first one that learned the key punch, and the accounting machine was as long as [this room],” she said. “I got to see all of the building [of the facilities and telescopes]. I got to see everything. We were a big happy family when I was working there. I worked almost twenty-eight years in accounting. I was the assistant accountant when I left.”
Pearl and Russell had one daughter, Wanda Jean, who lives in Berryville, Virginia. The couple had been married for 59 years when Russell passed away in 2002.
Clarkson now divides her time between her home in Arbovale and with her daughter in Berryville.
Those who would like to wish Clarkson a Happy Birthday may do so by sending cards to – Pearl Clarkson, c/o Jean Raupach, P.O. Box 146, Berryville, Virginia 22611
