Alice Clarke, Activist in Orange, Dies

Alice Clarke, a longtime activist in Orange where she co-founded a tax watchdog organization, died this week. She was 76.

“Whenever the council wanted to raise taxes, they had to answer to Alice,” said David Hart, who served with Clarke on the board of the Orange Taxpayers Assn. that she helped to establish.

Orange Councilman Fred L. Barrera said Clarke was a very wise, politically astute woman whose advice he frequently sought on tax issues.

Clarke was appointed to various ad hoc city committees, including the Old Towne Steering Committee, which has been involved in the preservation of the historic downtown district, Barrera said.

For 43 years, Clarke, a native of Detroit, was married to Duncan Clarke, who belongs to one of the families that pioneered the city of Orange in the 1870s.

She also is survived by their daughter, Christina Nicholson of Yucca Valley, and two grandchildren, Caleb, 10, and Duncan, 6.

Clarke’s family said she had been ill since January and succumbed Sunday to a combination of the effects of emphysema and congestive heart failure.

A funeral service is planned for Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Orange.