Ann Tonia Clark Bennett Collection

Ann Tonia Clark Bennett was my aunt and namesake, although our names were spelled differently. She was born on Black Friday, October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed. Fortunately, she was in Durango, Colorado, a long way from Wall Street. While it was not an auspicious day to be born, she lived a good life for 96 wonderful, active years, until she passed on June 26, 2025.

Tonia grew up in Durango, attended Southern Methodist University for two years, and then moved to New York City to become a Powers model. She often told me about all the fun she had dating in New York. Being a young, beautiful woman in the post-war years, I imagine that really was a lively time for her.

In 1950, she married Bob Bennett, one of my father's classmates from New Mexico Military Institute. They had three sons and spent their lives in Amarillo, Texas. She volunteered at the Amarillo Speech and Learning Center for 40 years and was a Montessori pre-school teacher for 20 years. In spite of her active life in Texas, part of her heart remained in Colorado and the Southwest and she returned here every summer.

Although my father, Jackson Clark I, was five years older, they were close their entire lives. As children, they shared their father's love of the Navajo people and their many adventures, traveling across the reservation, often camping out, and visiting the trading posts. Their father, Fred Clark, often told them, "We are going to places that most people don't even know about. We will see Indians whose way of life is changing, and when you grow up, things will be very different here. We want to see it now."

My father and Tonia were always grateful for those experiences.

As adults, they remained close, and Tonia often met up with Dad at the Gallup Ceremonial and Santa Fe Indian Markets in August. She joined him when he led tour groups to Canyon de Chelly, other areas of the Navajo reservation, Pueblo villages, and the Hopi Mesas.

Tonia was an avid collector with exquisite taste, and she loved all things Native American. We are pleased to offer our customers her special vintage jewelry collection. The family has priced them very reasonably, and they won't be available long.