Born: June 8, 1915, Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Died: March 17, 2008, Shepherd Lodge, Toronto, Canada.
Buried: Park Lawn Cemetery, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada.
Clarkson grew up in Toronto, and was educated at the Riverdale Collegiate Institute, Toronto Teachers’ College, and the University of Toronto.
She taught elementary school in Ontario for 38 years.
A gifted natural writer, she published hundreds of poems, articles, songs and sketches, and 17 books in 7 languages.
Hymn writing was her first love, and sprang from a lifetime of Bible study, personal Christian experience, and a disciplined lyrical expression.
Her hymns were published in A Singing Heart (Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing, 1987). At its 1992 national convention, The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada named Clarkson a Fellow of the Society in recognition of her contribution to hymnody.