[7][8] Clark is the younger sister of Charles Arthur "Chuck" Hershiser, Jr. (born April 26, 1948),[4] and the granddaughter of pioneer television hostess and cook Caroline Ilo Burchfield Hines Salyer (born in Loudon, Tennessee on February 17, 1902; died 1995 in Largo, Florida), who (as Ilo Salyer) hosted a 30-minute program Memo from Ilo five days a week on WJHL-TV in Johnson City, Tennessee from 1957 to 1966.
[9][10][11] Salyer was also a noted whistler who toured the churches of East Tennessee imitating birds and accompanied by the piano.
[17] After graduation, Clark matriculated to the Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville,[18] where she was both an honor student and a work scholar, and where she completed a BS in Food and Nutrition in 1971.
[15] In a January 1961 interview, Clark indicated that she had had no formal voice lessons, but had been singing since the age of four, although she had studied dancing under Nashville choreographer Gene Nash, who also worked with singer Eddy Arnold.
1 on radio station WHYN in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 4, 1961,[2] and also charted locally in Worcester (#2 on WORC);[32] Syracuse (#5 on WOLF);[33] Boston (#5 on WHIL);[34][35] Hartford (#8 on WDRC);[36] and Louisville (#13 on WKLO).
[40] By June 5, 1961, Clark released her second single: "Billy" (written by former prison inmate Robert Stanley Riley, co-writer of "Just Walkin' in the Rain",[41] and Jerry Crutchfield) backed with "For Your Sake", with both sides rated 4 stars (Strong Sales Potential) by Billboard magazine.
[43] By October 9, 1961, Clark released her third single: "It's Love" backed with "The Butterfly Tree", with Billboard magazine rating them both as 3 stars (Moderate sales potential).