Samuel Houston Clemons – Colonel, United States Army

From a contemporary press report:

Samuel Houston Clemons, 77, vice president of the National Center for Housing Management in Washington in the early 1980s, died March 3, 2002, at his home in Fort Washington, Maryland. He had cancer.

In the late 1980s, Mr. Clemons was a management and policy analyst for the D.C. blue ribbon commission on public housing.

A Chattanooga native, he was orphaned by age 8 and grew up with relatives in California and Illinois. He was a 1950 history graduate of what is now Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he also received a master’s degree in public administration. He did all but his dissertation for a doctorate in urban social institutions at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

He served in the Army in the South Pacific during World War II and participated in the battles at Okinawa and Leyte. He retired from the Army reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1977. His decorations included the Meritorious Service Medal.

In 1977, he retired from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Milwaukee as director of the housing management division. He also taught political science and urban affairs at two Milwaukee colleges.

He settled in the Washington area in 1980, and his memberships included the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Fort Washington. He was did volunteer work for the Boy Scouts.

He judged and competed in chili cook-offs in the Washington area. In 1979, he won the Wisconsin chili contest for a recipe both tomato-less and heavy on the chili powder. The judge was renowned cookbook author Merle Ellis.

His marriage to Janet Clemons ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 24 years, Mary Lou Hinchey-Clemons of Fort Washington; two daughters from his first marriage, Jan Clemons and Sybil Clemons, both of Chicago; and a son from the second marriage, Samuel Hinchey Clemons of Fort Washington.

CLEMONS, COL. SAMUEL H. (Ret.) (Age 77)

On Sunday, March 3, 2002 at home in Fort Washington, MD after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife of many years, Mary Lou Hinchey-Clemons, and son, Samuel, of Fort Washington; two daughters (from a prior marriage) Jan Lyn and
Sybil Clemons of Chicago, Illinois; a nephew, James L. Moore, also of Chicago; a
niece, Lena Carol Smith of Tacoma, Washington and a host of other relatives and
friends. Funeral arrangements are by the Lee Funeral Home, Branch Ave. and
Coventry Way, Clinton, MD, where a memorial service will be held on Saturday,
April 6, at 3 p.m. with inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery Columbarium on Monday, April 8, at 9 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Col. Clemons’ name to either Hospice of the Chesapeake or Boy Scouts of America, National Capital Area Council.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard