Marjorie Mitchell Cloke

Mrs. Marjorie Mitchell Cloke passed away in her sleep on Monday, March 19, 2012 after a seven months decline from a malignant brain tumor, while her favorite music played softly at her bed side. She was born near Trinity, NC on September 22, 1921, to the late Henry Allen and Florence McClain Mitchell. Marjorie Cloke spent her earliest years in the small community of Archdale, near High Point. Her superb intellect showed itself early when she graduated from high school with straight A's at the age of fifteen. Her name first appeared in local papers when she won a statewide political debate at the same age, followed by graduation soon after from business school in High Point. Thereafter she worked as a special court room stenographer for the U.S. Air Force Generals assigned to Courts Marshall in Salt Lake City, Utah. Later, Mrs. Cloke married Odell M. Smith in Baltimore, MD, where he was a journalist and editor for the Baltimore Sun. That marriage ended in divorce in 1954. Mrs. Cloke's business acumen is well documented as an advertising and public relations account executive with agencies in Baltimore and New York on accounts that included Allegheny Airlines (presently USAir), Black and Decker and Davidson Chemical among others. As a member and committee woman of the Public Relations Society of America, she met H. Walton Cloke, the association's president in 1959. After a year-long courtship, the two were married in Washington, DC with Mrs. Cloke's brother Henry Allen Mitchell, Jr., then residing in Washington, DC, giving her away. Mr. & Mrs. Cloke travelled extensively during his tenure as Exec. Vice President of Advertising and PR for Rockwell International. The two attended every manned space flight launch from Cape Canaveral including the Apollo missions and knew most of the astronauts personally. Over the years, known for her excellent taste and flair for decoration, Mrs. Cloke and her husband had homes in Potomac, MD, Washington, DC, New York City, Greenwich and Ridgefield, CT, Bel Air, CA, Hilton Head Island, SC and Fox Chapel, PA where they were living when Mr. Cloke died in 1975. In 1980, Mrs. Cloke's year-long efforts created a beautiful home in the historic Hillman House Estate in Shadyside, in the city of Pittsburgh where she continued to serve on the committees of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Light Opera, the Pittsburgh Public Educational Television station, among others. She enjoyed several years of travelling to her favorite destination, the Hotel Ritz in Paris, with Venice, Vienna, Tuscany and Provence as runners-up. Mrs. Cloke retired to her Bermuda Village home in Bermuda Run, near Winston-Salem, NC, in October 1998 where she continued many of her favorite pursuits; entertaining good friends, recounting wonderful jokes and stories, devouring good books, listening to and singing along with Frank Sinatra CDs, voting Democratic, and wearing her much admired hats! She is survived by her daughter, Martha Smith Squire, an interior designer, of Bermuda Run; her brother, Henry A. Mitchell, Jr., a partner with Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell and Jernigan Law Firm where he resides in Raleigh with his wife, Helen; also of Raleigh their three children; Henry A. Mitchell III, Michael W. Mitchell, and Martha M. Peterson and seven grandchildren; two sisters, Martha Carol Mitchell Willett and her son, James E. Willett, Jr., both of China Grove and Doris Jane Mitchell Sowers of High Point and her son, Kent Sowers of Durham; a step-daughter, Barbara Smith Howell of Chevy Chase, MD, and her daughters, Leah Howell Moga and Marya Howell Kniple. A celebration of her life will be held at a later date. Memorials may be made to the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home, 101 Hospice Lane, Winston-Salem, NC 27103. (Hayworth-Miller Funeral Home)

Service:
Memorial Service at a later date