By Gail Wood
There’d be a familiar knock at the back door. And Virgil Clarkson’s mother, Roxie, would open the door, ready to help whoever stood there. Often, it was a hungry, homeless man.
“And my mother would give him something to eat,” Virgil said.
It’s this scene, this childhood memory of a mother who didn’t have much but shared what she had, that has helped shape who Virgil is today eight decades later.
“We didn’t have much,” Virgil said about his life as a child. “But whoever came to that door, she’d always help. That attitude was instilled in us.”
It’s that caring, giving mother who taught her son the meaning of sharing. And it’s why, at age 66, Virgil couldn’t simply retire back in 1998. The things his mom taught him – by instruction and by example – wouldn’t let him.
Virgil’s 16-year run on the Lacey City Council, began in 1998. At age 66, he was appointed to the city council and then two years later won his first of five elections. In that time of the city growth, he was appointed as mayor twice and as deputy major twice.
Born in March 1932 in Houston, Texas, near the start of the Great Depression, Virgil was the youngest of three children. His father died when he was just 13 months old, leaving Roxie to care and provide for her three children. She never remarried.
With just a first-grade education, Roxie provided for Virgil and his older brother and older sister by cleaning houses and preparing meals. With their home next to a railroad track, there were a lot of knocks on their door from hobos, teaching a young boy about sharing.
“We didn’t have much,” Virgil said. “But we never went hungry. We never had a cold house.”
In March, Virgil turns 82. Yet last fall, rather than retire, he committed to another four years to the city council when he won another election.
In the mid 1990s when a councilman resigned, someone from the planning commission was appointed to fill the position. That irritated Virgil, calling it discrimination. A while later when another councilman resigned when he ran into some personal problems, Virgil, who was well known and respected in the community, threw his hat into the ring and he was appointed. His political career began.
It’s been a remarkable journey for Virgil, who has overcome poverty and racism in his life. Education, and an inner drive to overcome, helped open doors for Virgil throughout his life.
“My mother always made sure we did our homework,” Virgil said. “She always subscribed to the newspaper. And she always had her Bible open. But I don’t know if she knew how to read.”
She made sure her child knew.
After graduating from high school in January 1948 at age 16, Virgil began classes two days later at Texas Southern College. But during Virgil’s sophomore year, he dropped out of college and enlisted in the Marines in June 1950, near the start of the Korean War.
“I just said the heck with school,” Virgil said. “I dropped out. I didn’t even let my mother know.”
Virgil quickly realized he had made a mistake. The Marines weren’t for him.
“I was a movie fan and John Wayne was my hero,” Virgil said with a chuckle. “And he made the Marines look great.”
But Virgil discovered that the movies were sometimes cooler than reality. Fortunately for Virgil, President Dwight Eisenhower was wanting to reduce the military and he permitted anyone in the military who wanted to enroll in college a deferment.
So, after serving nearly 18 months in the Marines, Virgil was granted a release to return to college. Once he was back at Texas Southern, Virgil was determined to graduate at the same time as his friends, who were by then two semesters ahead of him.
Taking class loads of 18 to 21 credits a semester, in addition to working a restaurant job handling fish, Virgil graduated in August two years later, just two months after his classmates.
“I didn’t quite catch up,” Virgil said. “But at least I’m in the same yearbook.”
After graduating, Virgil, feeling the influence of his family history, enlisted in the Army and served 15 years. His grandfather served in the Spanish American War in 1898, his father served in WWI and his brother served in WWII.
“I still felt I owed something,” Virgil said. “So I went back. Army this time.”
When Virgil learned he was headed to Vietnam, he got out of the Army in 1965 while he was stationed at Fort Lawton, just north of Seattle. He then moved to Lacey in 1965, before the town was incorporated.
“I made the 16th black in Thurston County,” Virgil said. “So, there was no open housing.”
Virgil, who worked for the State Department of Natural Resources from 1965 to 1972 and for the Department of Transportation from 1972 to 1999, worked with others to create ordinances that prohibited housing discrimination. And that was the beginning of many projects Virgil has worked on, both as a city councilman and as a private citizen.
Roxie, Virgil’s mother, died in 1980 of cancer at age 86. She was proud of her three children, who all graduated from college. Virgil’s brother, Llayron, and sister, Amelia, both earned doctorate degrees, graduating with honors. They all shared the same life’s motto – Do what you can.
“That has been my motto,” Virgil said. “When I can and where I can.”
