Margaret 'Marlee' Clarke, Alexandria's First Female Vice Mayor, Dies at 86

Margaret “Marlee” Blackard Clarke, the first female vice mayor in Alexandria’s history, passed away Nov. 1 in the Cleveland area. She was 86.

Known as Marlee Inman during her time in Alexandria, Clarke and her then-husband Harry A. Inman moved to the city in 1953. She worked as a bank manager, writer-editor with the National Institutes of Health and later as an aide to state senator Wiley Mitchell and Alexandria mayor Charles Beatley.

She was elected to city council in 1979 and received the most votes among council candidates in the 1985 election, earning the title of vice mayor.  

She served on a variety of boards and commissions, including the City Council-Alexandria Hospital Task Force, the regional Water Resources Planning Board, and as representative on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Board of Directors and on the COG Task Force on the Homeless.

According to her obituary on Brown-Forward Funeral Service website: “Marlee strived to serve as a role model for other women, and was recognized with a special award by the Alexandria Commission on the Status of Women. A 1985 newspaper article describing her bipartisan skill in politics wrote, ‘She brings to council an air of gentility, an Ultrasuede long-time Alexandria presence,’ and quoted her as saying ‘There’s no limit to what can be done if you don’t care who gets the credit.’ She was named by the [Washingtonian] Magazine as the ‘Best Public Official’ in Alexandria, and described as ‘a jewel among the zircons.’” 

She abruptly resigned from city council in 1986. Councilwoman Del Pepper recalled Tuesday night the time her colleague asked for a point of personal privilege. 

“She said she had an offer she couldn’t refuse,” said Pepper, who was first elected to council in 1985. “I thought to myself ‘What could that be?’ Marlee in fact had an offer of marriage to a man who lived in another state… and she thought it was an offer she couldn’t refuse.”

Marlee Way, a road on the eastern edge of Bradlee Shopping Center connecting King Street and Braddock Road, is named in her honor.

She married Alexander B. Clarke in 1986 and the couple moved to Lake Wylie, S.C., and later to Charlottesville, Va.

Following her husband’s death in 2002, Clarke moved to the Cleveland area. She died Nov. 1 surrounded by family.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Clarke’s name to The Salvation Army, 2507 E.22nd St., Cleveland, Ohio, 44115; Randolph College, 2500 Rivermont Ave, Lynchburg, Va., 24503 or Plymouth Church, 2860 Coventry Rd., Shaker Hts., Ohio, 44120. 

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15 in the Auditorium of Judson Park, 2181 Ambleside Dr., Cleveland, Ohio.

Clarke is the third former member of Alexandria city council to pass away in the past month. Two-term councilmember Lois L. Walker died Oct. 13, and former vice mayor Mel Bergheim passed away Oct. 20.