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Clement Named Distinguished Alumna of Campbell
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Mary Lee Clement receives
Campbell's Distinguished
Alumna Award. Also pictured are Doug Jones, assistant
vice president for Alumni Relations and Special Events,
and Jerry Wood, assistant vice president for Church and
Community Relations.
photo by Todd Scarborough |
The auditorium roared with applause as Mary Lee
Clement stepped to the podium and thrust out her arm in a martial
arts salute. The 1931 graduate of Campbell University who took up
Tang Soo Do while in her 80s was on campus to receive the
Distinguished Alumna Award, but it was her pluck and determination
that impressed the students.
“What a wonderful heritage you have. What a wonderful
privilege to live among a fine Christian faculty and staff,” she
exclaimed. “I was afraid I wouldn’t find the same spirit I remembered
after 70 years, but it is still here.”
Clement’s reminiscences about the dorm lavatory that was
never unstopped and the strict “no boys” code that she and her
associates managed to work around were humorous insights into the
Campbell of the past, but the 90-year-old former realtor also gave
students her advice for the future.
“I challenge you to put God first, your family next, and
then young people,” she said. “Because it is you who make the world the
way it will be, and I love you all!”
After graduating from Campbell with an Associate of Arts
degree, Mrs. Clement went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in English,
history, and education from Chowan College. She founded Clement Realty
in Muscle Shoals, AL, in 1966 with her late husband, Shelden L. Clement.
She twice served as president of the local Board of Realtors and was
president of the Alabama Women’s Council of Realtors (WCR). She was
named WCR Woman of the Year in both 1981 and 1984 for the quad cities
area of Florence, Sheffield, and Muscle Shoals, AL, and in 1983 chaired
the WCR national program “Alive at 65.” The local board twice selected
Clement Realtor of the Year and she was named Alabama Realtor of the
Year in 1982.
Teaching Sunday school has been a lifelong commitment
for Clement, who taught at Buies Creek First Baptist Church when she was
a student at Campbell and who continues to teach at Woodmont Baptist
Church in Florence, AL, where she resides.
Clement is the mother of two daughters, Brenda Wilson of
Wilmington, DE, and Beverly Barnett, of Franklin, NC. She also has two
granddaughters, Bethany Howard and Shannon Miller, and two
great-grandsons.
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