Clark remembered for kindness, ‘Sawdust Café’
By John C. Stevenson
LIBERTY – Walter “Ray” Clark an “iconic” fixture in Liberty who owned Clark Cabinet Shop, served on City Council and as director of the city Public Works Department, died Monday at home. He was 66.
Michael Sheriff, a local architect and mayor pro-tem of Liberty, remembered Clark as “a friend to a lot of people.”
“He always went out of his way to do things for people.” Sheriff said. “He was a kind, gentle person who always went out of his way to help people.”
Clark was known as a master griller, and on many evenings his cabinet shop would be the scene for informal dinners of from eight to 50 friends, events what would eventually earn his shop the nickname of “Sawdust Café.”
“Any night that we could gather a group together,” Sheriff said, “Somebody would go fishing and catch a bunch of fish, we’d have a fish fry. If somebody’d come up from the coast, we’d have a Lowcountry boil.
“It never was a planned and invited and pre-announced thing,” Sheriff said. “It was just that everybody knew when it was going to happen, it seemed like.”
Clark’s business was featured in the 1999 movie “Chill Factor,” which was filmed at several locations in the Upstate.
After he closed his cabinet shop, Clark was elected to City Council and served a year before resigning to become director of the Water and Sewer Department, Mayor Brian C. Deese said.
“He was an iconic figure around Liberty,” Deese said. “He would do anything for you. Everyone knew him.”
In 2006, Clark received a Liberty Chamber of Commerce award for his contributions to the area.
Visitation will be 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Liberty Mortuary. Services will be at 11:00 a.m. Thursday at Calumet Baptist Church.
* Thanks to Tammy Clark for reposting the text from this article on FaceBook.
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