Howard V. Clayton passed away Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017.
He was the son of Elam Basil Clayton and Addie Armstrong Clayton. He graduated from Duncan Oklahoma High School in 1948 and Yale University in 1952, where he sang with the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. In December 1955, he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy with the rank of lieutenant junior grade serving in the Korean conflict.
While working for the Texas Oil Company in Shreveport, La., he met and married Marion Francis Potts of Natchitoches, La., Sept. 9, 1957. Becoming the assistant base manager for the Boeing Missile Program, they moved and settled in Newport News, Va., in 1959. In later years, Howard became an independent real estate broker under Clayton Agency.
Among Howard’s many interests were art, antiques and sports. While in Newport News he was third vice president for the Peninsula Arts Association, volunteered as chairman of the Junior League’s Children’s Theatre and coached Pee Wee Football. He enjoyed tennis and golf. He and his wife moved to Yorktown, Va., in 1988. He served as vice president and then president of the Watermen’s Museum Board and was also a Yorktown trustee until his stroke in 1999.
He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Mary Clayton Shaw; and brother, Joe Clayton.
He is survived by his wife, Marion Clayton of Yorktown; daughter, Sarah Clayton Davis, and son-in-law, Bruce Norman Davis, of Mclean, Va.; son, John H. Clayton, and daughter-in-law, Michelle Clayton, of Atkins, Va.; three grandchildren, Clayton Davis, and his wife, Laura, and great-grandson, Brennan, and Caroline Davis and William Davis, all of McLean, Va.; sister-in-law, Denise Clayton; nephews, Tom Clayton and Andy Clayton; niece, Kerry Parsons; brother-in-law, Howard Shaw of San Raphael, Calif.; and niece, Jennifer Hurd, and nephew, John Shaw, and his wife, Andrea, all of California.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at Grace Episcopal Church, Yorktown. Interment will follow in the church cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Lackey Clinic, 1620 Old Williamsburg Road, Yorktown, VA 23690.
