Fallen Hero: Colonel (R) Clarke Ammons

Huntsville, AL (McComb, MS)


Funeral Home

Laughlin Service Funeral Home & Crematory

2320 Bob Wallace Ave. SW Huntsville, AL 35805
(256) 534-2471

Visitation

Service

A graveside service with full military honors will be held at Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Ala., Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m.


Obituary

Colonel (Ret.) Clarke Ammons died Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019, in Huntsville, Ala. He was 95.

A long-time resident of McComb, Ammons was born in Pelahatchie, Miss., the third child of Jefferson Delessup and Exie King Ammons. After graduating from Forest Hills High School in Jackson in 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was an Army Air Corps Cadet. He had received orders to report to glider school to prepare for the invasion of Japan when World War II ended. Clarke was a communications officer in Korea, staff officer for the Mississippi National Guard’s 106th Engineering Battalion in Monticello and served the same role for the U.S. Army Reserve’s 87th Army Reserve Support Command in Birmingham, Ala. He served his country for a total of 40 years, retiring in 1984.

Clarke also attended the University of Mississippi, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

When he retired, he and his wife, Alice, moved to McComb, where Clarke built his own beautiful home on land near Holmesville that had been in Alice’s family since the 1930s. He used those same skills when he and Alice helped establish the Pike County Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, providing quality homes for many deserving families. For their work, Clarke and Alice were named the Enterprise Journal’s Citizens of the Year in 1993.

Above all, Clarke was a man who loved his family. He and Alice were married for 69 years. They persevered through lean times and celebrated the abundance of their later life by traveling around the country in a succession of RVs.

They had four children, of whom Clarke was enormously proud as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren he adored.

Clarke was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Elaine Lawrence, and his brother, J.D. “Jake” Ammons. He is survived by his wife, Alice Dennard Ammons; his sons, Lanny Clarke and David Edwin Ammons; and his daughters, Patricia Elizabeth and Susan Ada Ammons; his sons-in-law, Lee Roop and Donald Dresser; and his grandchildren, Shannon Flory, Jessica Hrenyk, Charlotte Olsen, Justin Ammons, Alicia Ammons and Katherine Pitts; as well as eight great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

With enduring gratitude, the family thanks Vada McGowan, Blondie Reese and Samuel Reese, who helped Clarke and Alice live comfortably in their home these past few years.

He leaves behind happy memories of a life well-lived and people who loved him dearly.

A graveside service with full military honors will be held at Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Ala., Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m.
To send flowers to the family of Col. (Ret.) Clarke Ammons, please visit Tribute Store.