Memorial service for former Lacey Mayor Clarkson is Saturday, councilman says
The memorial service for former Lacey Mayor Virgil Clarkson, who died in November at age 90, is at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, councilman Lenny Greenstein announced during Thursday’s Lacey City Council meeting.
The service will take place at First United Methodist Church, 1224 Legion Way SE, Olympia.
Clarkson spent nearly 20 years on Lacey City Council, including three terms as mayor and two terms as deputy mayor.
A Texas native, Clarkson earned an undergraduate degree in math and physics from Texas Southern University in 1953. After graduation, Clarkson served 13 years in the Army, including at Fort Lawton in Seattle, The Olympian previously reported.
Following his military service, Clarkson went to work for the state Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Highways (now the state Department of Transportation) in Olympia. When hired by Highways, Clarkson was one of six Black employees at the department, The Olympian reported.
Clarkson officially took office in Lacey on July 23, 1998. He was Lacey’s first Black mayor, a position he held for two consecutive terms from 2004-2007. He held a third term as mayor from 2012-2013.
In honor of his service to the community, the City Council appointed him mayor again in December 2017, to close out his final term in office.
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
