Wanda Clark, who was Lucille Ball’s devoted secretary for 26 years until the famous actress’ death in 1989, died Sunday in Langley, Oklahoma. She was 87 years old.
While working as a secretary at Look magazine, Clark struck up a friendship with a woman named Cleo Smith. Clark left to take a job as a travel assistant Queen for a daybut the game show was canceled shortly after its arrival.
Smith, however, told her about a job offer at Ball’s company, Desilu Productions – and as Ball’s cousin, she would have known. THE I love Lucy The star hired Clark in 1963 without an interview based solely on Smith’s recommendation, and she served as his valued assistant until Ball’s death in April 1989 at the age of 77.
On social media, Ball and Desi Arnaz’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, noted that she was 11 when Clark began working for her mother. Clark was also her matron of honor at her first marriage, to actor Phil Menegaux in 1971.
“She has traveled the world to attend any of my or my brother’s (Desi Arnaz Jr.) shows, including attending our daughter’s wedding,” Arnaz wrote. “She had a memory like an elephant’s and a heart the same size. Everyone she met loved her.
“She and our late amanuensis, Frank Gorey (who also knew me since I was four feet tall), remained in my brother’s life and mine for decades after my mother passed. She was my North Star. Wanda and Frank’s spirit of joy and pure kindness are responsible for most of everything good in me.”
Wanda Lou Clark was born March 19, 1938 in Vandervoort, Arkansas. She and her family lived in Idabel, Oklahoma, and moved to Oklahoma City in 1951, and she graduated from U.S. Grant High School in 1956.
While working for six years at an insurance company in Oklahoma City, Clark accompanied her sister, Bonnie, and brother-in-law, Ross, to California, where Ross was stationed at what was then called Vandenberg Air Force Base. Ross and Bonnie returned home in 1962, but Wanda decided she liked where she lived and moved to Los Angeles, where she would eventually hook up with Ball.
“Through her efficiency and thoroughness, Wanda always ensured that every task was accomplished exceptionally,” wrote Michael Z. Stern in his 2016 book, I Had Fun: My Friendship with Lucille Ball. “She handled everything effortlessly, balanced everything with such crispness and clarity. I really don’t know how she did it.”
Clark even appeared – as a secretary, of course – in a 1969 episode. This is Lucy.
After Ball’s death, Clark worked for philanthropist Barbara Davis, actresses Victoria Principal and Melody Thomas Scott, talent agent Roger Vorce, and producer Ray Stark.
Clark was a founding board member of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York. She also loved animals, especially poodles.
Survivors include his sisters, Marian and Beverly; his brothers-in-law, Robert and Dan; his nephew, Scott; and his niece, Shelley.
