Knowing Norman

Many of us are certainly familiar with Norman Rockwell as the famous painter, but for Ocala’s Ardis Clark, she knew him simply as “Norman.”

Norman Rockwell and Ardis Clark

BY AMANDA CLARK-RUDOLPH

Ardis Clark sits in a cozy chair surrounded by Norman Rockwell photos and trinkets, but Ardis is not your average fan of the Saturday Evening Post and Boys’ Life cover illustrator. If you look closer at her “Norman Wall,” as she calls it, you’ll see photos of her as a young girl modeling for Rockwell’s works intermixed with copies of famous paintings. Ardis, 84, still has a fiery streak and speaks with accompanying hand gestures. Her energy resonates.

It was common for Rockwell to go through many models before settling on one. He would take a picture and paint from the photograph because his everyday subjects didn’t have the time to pose for many hours. Ardis has some of these original pictures on her Norman Wall. You see, to Rockwell, Ardis was more than just a model for his paintings.

She was also his neighbor.

Ardis Clark grew up as Ardis Edgerton in West Arlington, Vermont. “Peaceful Valley as my father called it,” she says as I admire the Rockwell themed books, trinkets, and photos displayed around her house. Ardis radiates, and you can tell she enjoys passing down her stories.

When Ardis was 10, the Rockwells moved across the road from her family’s colonial farmhouse. They were in search of a fresh start after Norman’s nearby studio burned to the ground, destroying 28 years of paintings with it. After the heartbreaking disaster, the Rockwells wanted seclusion and found it in the house next door to Ardis and her family. There the Rockwells and Edgertons lived side by side from 1943 to 1953.

The Rockwell and Clark homes

However, these families were not typical neighbors. They were heavily involved in one another’s lives. Ardis’ parents, James and Clara, would become best friends with Norman and his wife, Mary. Ardis also went to school with all of the Rockwell children. She even babysat for Norman’s son, Peter, and she graduated with Tommy, who was named the class valedictorian. (Ardis was salutatorian.) I laugh as she tells me that she also dated another son, Jerry, a few times.

Norman found inspiration in the hardworking family that made maple syrup and raised cows. Although the Edgertons didn’t have a lot of money, Rockwell was always respectful and viewed his neighbors who resided 60 feet down the lane as his equals. Ardis recalls a story that illustrates this mutual respect. “For a longtime,” she says, “both of our houses needed to be painted badly, but Norman wouldn’t paint his house until my parents could afford to paint theirs.” The families were so close that they would even spend holidays together. “We went over there every Christmas,” she says, “and they always had a gift for us.”

Furthermore, Rockwell’s wife, Mary, “was like a second mom to me,” Ardis says gratefully. Mary would give her clothes and enjoyed having the vibrant redhead around. She also employed Ardis as a housekeeper so that she could make some extra money.

Ardis Clark

“Mary had a notebook that she’d leave open, and I’d write my hours down in it. When I needed money, I’d ask for the check, and she’d pay me.”

Rockwell also paid Ardis $5 to model for his paintings, and Ardis happily obliged on several occasions. But it wasn’t just Ardis who modeled for Rockwell—you can see her mother, father, sisters, grandmother, and brother all in Rockwell’s works. Her brother, Buddy, was the featured model in many of Rockwell’s iconic scouting paintings because of his good looks and boyish charm.

Ardis tells her stories with ease and you can see that she’s having a difficult time deciding which one to tell next. Her mind remains filled with memories from her days living on the lane.

As she speaks, I look to the wall and see a sweet photograph of Ardis with her arm around Norman. They’re both sticking out their tongues. It’s one of the original pictures that she asked for all those years ago.

I listen as Ardis begins to tell another easily recollected story about her father, James Edgerton, whom Rockwell admired for being the only person who stood up at a town meeting to object to rebuilding a school that had just burned down. Her father thought the town couldn’t afford it, but “he was unanimously turned down,” Ardis recalls.

However, the story doesn’t end there.

Ardis explains that the motion passed, so the town started to build the high school. Around the same time, James’ cows got sick and “the government came in,” Ardis says,” and carried all the diseased cows away—except one.” Obviously James needed a job to feed his family, so in an ironic twist of fate, he ended up building the school that he didn’t vote for. After three days, he became a crew boss and then scrawled “James Edgerton” on a prominent beam. “It came full circle,” Ardis says while laying many old photographs out on her dining room table.

Ardis then skips ahead to her wedding with her now-late husband, Ray Clark. The Rockwells helped tremendously with the momentous occasion. Mary came over and vacuumed their house where the wedding reception was to take place, and they gave the newlyweds china for a wedding present— which Ardis still has—and paid for the flowers and photographer.

“We didn’t have the money for any of that back then,” Ardis explains. You can still sense her immense appreciation.

After talking with Ardis, you quickly find that the ties with the Edgerton family ran incredibly deep. So deep that when Norman and Mary later moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, it came up in one of his letters.

“The thing I most regretted,” he wrote, “was leaving Jim and Clara.”

Norman & Mary Rockwell with Ardis’ parents, James & Clara Edgerton

Ardis could talk to you for days about her relationships with the Rockwells and how much these families meant to each other. Yes, Ardis knew Rockwell, the painter, but even more so, she knew Rockwell, the man, and her down-to-earth stories about the time when both families lived side by side on the lane will be passed down to future generations. However, there’s much more to Ardis than her Rockwell memories and modeling days. She went on to create her own story and has lived in Ocala for 35 years.

After the Rockwells moved away, Ardis and her husband, Ray, bought and managed a string of independent grocery chains in Vermont. The last store, Clark’s IGA (now Clark’s Quality Foods), still resides in Londonderry. Her three children own and operate it to this day.

When asked why Ardis moved to Ocala from Vermont, her first response was “to get Ray away from the store or we would have never retired.” Like Ardis’ father, Ray was a hardworking man, and he put everything he had into running the family business.

Ardis and Ray also settled on Ocala because of a Readers Digest real estate promotion. “They flew you down and wined and dined you. They even paid for golf,” Ardis says. “Back then, there were only six model homes here. We put money down on a lot in 1974, paid it off in 1979, and built the house in 1981.” However, the couple didn’t move down permanently until they retired from Clark’s IGA a few years later. The Clark family has now been in the grocery business for six decades.

Ray and Ardis enjoyed a relaxing Ocala life together. They were avid golfers and charter members of their local church. But in 1999, Ray was unexpectedly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away that same year. Like Norman, Ardis found a way to spread hope, even through darker times, and she was on a mission to give back in Ray’s name.

It was by chance that Ardis met a woman at a fair on Lake Lillian in Belleview who told Ardis about The Ocala Royal Dames, a social charity where 100 percent of funds raised go to cancer research. She joined without hesitation and has been a contributing member for 17 years. Ardis also continued Ray’s legacy at the Veterans Memorial in Ocala by having his name engraved on a commemorative stone. Ray was a veteran of the Korean War, and you can view his name along with others at the park.

As for Ardis' unique experience with the Rockwells, she continues to share her memories with family and at special events. She spoke along with more than two dozen other surviving models this past summer at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Arlington. She also participated in a program at the Belleview Library a few years ago, a game show-like presentation where her unexpected secret was a showstopper.

Additionally, Ardis plays a prominent role in her brother Buddy’s book, The Unknown Rockwell, that tells the full version of the Edgerton and Rockwell relationship through Buddy’s eyes. There has even been talk of this book becoming a movie. Ardis also recently opened up her home to New York author Steve Hagerty, who’s also writing a book about the models from Arlington. She’s also given a few talks at a nearby church, presented in the Villages, and spoken recently at the Appleton Museum.

While interviewing Ardis for this article, you could see the spark in her eyes. To the Edgertons, the Rockwells were like an extended family and Ardis continues to tell her story to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. These down-to-earth memories live on in all of them.

Norman died in 1978 from Alzheimer’s, an unfinished painting still on his easel. However, Ardis’ unique link to the Rockwell family cannot be broken. Even though Norman Rockwell would go down as one of the most recognized illustrators of our time, to Ardis, he was known by only one name. Norman.

How Well Do You Know Norman?

• He got his first paid art gig at 16, a set of Christmas cards commissioned by his neighbor.

• His biggest inspiration was artist Howard Pyle.

• He produced 323 covers for The Saturday Evening Post.

• The artist’s Four Freedoms series was also an incredibly effective fundraising tool for the American military, netting nearly $133 million in war bonds while on a government-sponsored touring exhibition.

• His three wives were all schoolteachers.

• His painting, Saying Grace, netted $46 million from an anonymous buyer at a 2013 art auction.

Source: mentalfloss.com

Ardis and her family posed often for the iconic American painter and were featured in many of his best-known works. Due to copyright restrictions, we couldn’t publish them in this story, but search these specific titles to see the images online.

HOMECOMING G.I.—Ardis is the fiery redheaded girl in blue.

THE LONG SHADOW OF LINCOLN—Features Ardis and her brother Buddy, sister Joy, and great-grandmother Elva.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH—This was inspired by her father being the only one to stand up for a cause at a school meeting, although he’s not the actual model.

Editor’s Note: Ardis Clark is Amanda Clark-Rudolph’s grandmother. Amanda is a local freelance writer who enjoys penning feature-length articles for several publications and websites.