Clyde Marable Mccarty

Clyde Marable McCarty was born in El Paso, Texas on June 29th, 1922 to James Rose Marable, a tailor, and Mary Spotswood Glinn Marable, a seamstress. The family returned to South Carolina and later moved to 510 Wabash Avenue NE Atlanta, Georgia. Clyde grew up in Atlanta, attending Girls High School, and went on to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She met Thomas Edward McCarty at a Valentine’s Day dance in 1942 and they were married on March 27th of the same year.
While Tom was in officer training in California, Clyde and her friend Elizabeth Roddy served as airplane spotters in the California desert. They told stories of seeing planes and trying to identify the type and guess how high the plane was flying.
After Tom returned from the war, they settled in Decatur and raised their family. Clyde converted to Catholicism during her marriage with Tom and was a devout Catholic throughout her life. She attended church regularly and served others in several ways. For many years, she brought Catholic children, who attended the Davidson School for the Deaf, to church and our home for Sunday dinner. Later in life she sewed maternity clothes for Birthright International and was a frequent volunteer at the local food bank.
Clyde returned to college in the 1960’s and received a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree in education from Georgia State University. She earned a specialist certification in reading as well. She taught at St. Thomas More Parochial School, Tilly Mill Elementary, and Fernbank Elementary in DeKalb County and Flat Shoals Elementary in Rockdale County. While at Fernbank, she specialized in reading education, particularly English language learners. After retirement, she tutored those learning to read and some learning to re-read after serious illness.
Clyde loved to sew. She sewed clothes for her daughters, Halloween costumes for her grandchildren: mermaid, bunny, Davy Crockett, M&M, pumpkin, Power Puff Girls, and vampire cloaks. Clyde also sewed doll clothes for a number of dolls, sewed a teepee for her son in the driveway on Drexel Ave, and sewed many, many quilts over the last 20 years for her children and grandchildren.
She loved the beach and made yearly jaunts to Folly Beach, South Carolina with family. At Folly, Clyde loved to read on the screened-in porch, eat fried oysters, go crabbing, and put her toes in the ocean. She loved blackberry picking on I-85 in a red straw hat, gardening in her full vegetable garden in her front yard, and reading a wide variety of genres (history, war, mystery). She read a book a day and always said her favorite was Little Women. Clyde enjoyed playing bridge, particularly at St. Thomas More with all of her friends. Travel was another one of Clyde’s passions. She traveled all over the world to places such as England, Ireland, Scotland, Mexico, and many others. She loved camping and made many trips out to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and to Pisgah National Forest.
Clyde was loving, caring, and compassionate. She raised her kids to have great values, good manners, and a strong work ethic. Every Sunday she brought her kids to mass followed by a mandatory family dinner. Her house was always open to anyone who needed a good meal or a place to stay. She made a lasting impression on a great number of people and she will be truly missed by many.