An activist who co-founded an agency to help newcomer women to Windsor is being remembered for her heart and her drive.
Daphne Clarke, an immigrant who helped found Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women (WWWWIW) and was active in numerous community and charitable causes, died in Windsor on Friday, according to a release from Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor (WEST), where Clarke served as a board member and a past president. She was 86.
Clarke made her mark as a health care worker, serving as a registered nurse and a midwife, but in 1982 she co-founded WWWWIW.
It was founded due to a lack of support for newcomer women in the Windsor-Essex area, according to their official website.
Born, raised and educated in Jamaica, then the United Kingdom, Clarke moved to Canada in 1970. She worked for Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital for a quarter-century as a registered nurse, certified midwife, and a certified national baby nurse.
In addition to her work in health care and in non-profits, Clarke was also a member of numerous groups, including the Multicultural Council of Windsor Essex County, the Essex County Black Historical Society, the Windsor Black Coalition, and the Windsor West Indian Association. She has won multiple awards for her activism, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Governor General's Sovereigns Medal.
Clarke is survived by her two sons, Errol and Roy, grandson Eric and five siblings, as well as multiple nieces and nephews.
A visitation for Clarke will take place on Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Anderson Funeral Home and Cremation Centre on Ouellette Avenue in downtown Windsor, with a prayer service at 8 p.m. A requiem Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church on Park Street East, with interment at St. Alphonsus Cemetery.
