Helen Newton Hawkins (1892-1974), the daughter of William and Helen Hawkins, was born in Americus, Georgia on May 19, 1892. She moved to Atlanta with her family in the late 1890s and married insurance agent Arthur Clarke on November 4, 1914.

Helen Hawkins Clarke was an active member of the Junior League of Atlanta. Founded in 1914, the league promoted volunteerism for educational and charitable causes. In 1928, Clarke helped establish the Cherokee Garden Club, the second oldest garden club in Atlanta. As a club member, Clarke worked on community service projects, took horticultural courses and became involved with flower shows. She soon became an award-winning flower arranger and esteemed flower show judge in Georgia. On the domestic front, Helen Clarke raised a daughter, also named Helen. In addition, Clarke designed and executed an extensive garden at the home she and her husband purchased on West Andrews Drive in the Peachtree Heights Park neighborhood of Atlanta in 1929.

Clarke’s interest in horticulture led her to study landscape architecture at the University of Georgia. She entered the university’s program in 1935, the same year her daughter enrolled as a freshman. In 1936 and 1937, Clarke served as the horticultural chairperson for the Garden Club of Georgia and wrote extensively for the club’s publication Garden Gateways. During the late 1930s, Clarke worked with the landscape architectural firm of Newberry and Johnson. Helen Hawkins Clarke was one of the first women in Atlanta to practice in the field of landscape architecture. Immediately prior to World War II, Clarke formed a short-lived partnership with Perry H. Wheeler, who later became famous for his role in designing the White House Rose Garden during the Kennedy administration.

Clarke’s professional career as a landscape architect ended in the 1940s due to illness. However, she continued to help friends and family with their garden designs until her death on July 26, 1974.