Date: Fri 16-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Borough-Spencer-clerk-Walker

Full Text:

Darlene Spencer is new borough clerk

w/photo

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Darlene Spencer looked out the dining room window at the flock of wild turkeys

moving slowly across the backyard and smiled.

"I always wanted to live here - right in this spot - since I was a child," she

said. "It was a dream and I almost can't believe I'm here now."

It would seem logical that a descendant of the Clarke, Walker and Ferris

families, one who attended Hawley School, the Middle School and Newtown High

School, would live in town. But when Darlene Walker married Andy Spencer in

1979, the couple moved to Waterbury and would live there for the next 16

years.

"Andy grew up in Sandy Hook and wanted to live in a city," Darlene explained.

"Love is blind so I let him lead me away."

Darlene, who graduated from Katharine Gibbs Academy, had worked as a legal

secretary for firms in New Milford and Waterbury, then took a job with the

Hartford Whalers for the next six years.

"I started out as a secretary, but for the last three years I was the skybox

manager, coordinating the ticketing and sales for the luxury suites at the top

of the Civic Center," she said. "When they were first being built, I was

involved in coordinating the decorating with the companies that leased them,

and afterwards I worked with the Civic Center for other events when the boxes

were used."

When her daughter, Karla, now 7, was born, she decided to stay home. A second

child, Jeffrey, now 4, followed. When Karla approached school age, the

Spencers started seriously thinking about moving back to Newtown.

"We lived in a nice neighborhood in Waterbury, but the school system just

doesn't have the same advantages as Newtown's," Darlene Spencer said. "We

decided to move back here for the schools and the more rural setting, like I

had when I grew up."

By now Andy's parents and sister had moved to Maine, but his brother, Dave,

stayed in town and operates the Village Tire Center on Route 302. Darlene's

parents, Clifford and Marie Walker, live on West Street with their younger

daughter, Linda - and it was into their home that the Spencers moved,

temporarily, while their house was being built.

They selected a ranch-style modular house and had it erected on a foundation

in the middle of a field along Sugar Street, on part of the former 90-acre

Clarke dairy farm which dated back to the 18th century.

"The original farmhouse where my great-great grandparents, the Clarkes, lived,

is at the corner of West Street and Route 302," Darlene said. "Their daughter,

my great-grandmother, married Alfred Walker, a pharmacist from Ossining, N.Y.

They lived in New York but later, after both my great-grandmother and her

parents had died, he moved here and took over operation of the farm. His son,

my grandfather Clarke Walker, built the house across the street, next to the

Bible Baptist Church, where my dad grew up.

"Grandfather ran the farm but my dad, who is an only child, became a

pharmacist - like his grandfather - and worked at Fairfield Hills until he

retired. My brother, Dale, became a pharmacist, too, and also married a

pharmacist."

The farm didn't get wind up getting sold for development, however. Darlene's

father, Clifford Walker, married Marie Ferris, daughter of Donald and Helen

Ferris who operated a dairy farm on Head O'Meadow Road. That dairy farm ceased

operations after Donald's death. But much of the Clarke/Walker farmland

between Sugar Lane and West Street is now being leased to Charles Ferris, III,

and his wife, Shirley, the state commissioner of agriculture, who operate

Ferris Acres dairy farm nearby.

"Donald Ferris was the brother of Charlie Ferris' father, Charles, Jr, so my

mother and Charlie are first cousins," Darlene explained.

With her roots sunk deeply in Newtown, Darlene Spencer was glad to move home,

even though it was a bit crowded, until their house was ready for occupancy in

December.

"Our furniture was stacked to the ceiling in my parents' living room," Darlene

recalled. "Our house was supposed to be ready by October but there were a few

storms and other problems that stretched things out."

Since she returned to Newtown, she has developed a strong interest in

preserving the borough. Recently she was appointed to the position of clerk of

the Borough of Newtown, serving the same board on which her mother is a

burgess and treasurer.

Darlene Spencer said she is impressed by the burgesses' attempts to safeguard

the trees along Main Street when the sewers are installed and by their efforts

to create a historic district.

"When I was young I didn't think much about the borough - I took it for

granted," Darlene said. "But now I realize how important it is to preserve its

historic character and to try to keep it rural, while still meeting the needs

of the people who live here."