English: Biography: The eldest of eight children of a farming family in Georgia, Ardie Clark Halyard spent her early days working at home and in the fields. Because her parents, William and Annie Louise Jeter Clark, were determined that their children should receive good educations, she was sent away to grade school and to the high school at Atlanta University. She graduated in 1920 from Atlanta University Teachers' College and soon moved to Wisconsin with her husband, Wilbur Halyard. Although they did not have much money, they immediately began to help her brothers and sisters with their educations. She and her husband founded the Columbia Savings and Loan Association, an organization chartered in 1924 to improve the housing situation for Blacks in the Milwaukee area. During the day, Mrs. Halyard was employed by Goodwill Industries, where she served in several capacities, eventually becoming director of rehabilitation. At night, she donated her clerical skills to the savings and loan association, and after 20 years left Goodwill to work full time as assistant managing director. She has also been secretary/treasurer, managing officer, and chairperson of the board at Columbia. Work in Wisconsin branches of the NAACP and with the United Negro College Fund have figured prominently among Mrs. Halyard's community activities.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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