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EUGENE CLARK: From the Terrace

 

In life, Eugene Clark observed the three D's: dance, drama and divas. He started early: Roberta Flack was his music teacher in Washington, D.C., during the 1960's. He could sing like Jennifer Holliday in the musical "Dreamgirls," he could emote like Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard" and he danced "like Tina Turner," said Larry Courtney, Mr. Clark's partner for the last 13 years. "And he had legs almost as good."

For the last four years, the couple lived in a two-story rooftop apartment on 42nd Street, with a sweeping view of the neon canyons and the bustle of Times Square. It was not that Mr. Clark did not enjoy his work at Aon Corporation, where he was an administrative assistant, but he loved his life away from the office.

He adored "Miss Saigon" and "Les Miserables," cooked southern-style fried cabbage, and collected Waterford crystal decanters and vases.

And then, there was what they called "the Terrace." Mr. Clark, 47, converted the apartment's 10-foot-by-24-foot concrete-slab patio into a thriving terrace garden, laying in lattice work and a fountain. He potted red hibiscus plants, geraniums in hanging baskets, miniature cedar trees, and yellow and burgundy hollyhocks.

From the terrace, guests at their annual New Year's Eve parties could watch the ball drop in Times Square.

Mr. Courtney, who has three children from when he was married, said they came to love Mr. Clark as a family member. Mr. Courtney's daughter, Heather, 28, joined them on a gay rights march in Washington in 1993, carrying a sign that read, "I'm proud of my gay dad and my new step-queen."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times