Man killed in Fort Worth was basketball star, beloved friend, ‘extraordinary’ person
Larry Clark was many things, his family and friends say. He was a star basketball player, an adopted son, a Hurricane Katrina survivor, a father and a brother.
Mostly, though, he was a friend, and a good one. The 27-year-old made his friends laugh with his dry humor and inspired people with his positivity.
On Saturday, children playing outside in Fort Worth found Clark’s body in the 9000 block of North Normandale Street. By Tuesday, the medical examiner confirmed his death was a homicide. His cause of death was listed as blunt-force trauma and asphyxiation.
Police have arrested no suspects.
“You don’t come across people like him,” Robert Velasco said of Clark, whom he met in high school. “I was so lucky to have met him and be able to call him my friend.”
Friend becomes brother
Blake Scott did not initially get along with the person who would become his adopted brother. The first time he and Clark met, they were fighting over the water fountain in middle school.
But when some boys in the locker room started picking on Scott, Clark stepped in and defended him.
That weekend, Scott invited Clark over to the house. Scott and his mom, Carol Lennox, learned Clark lost his home in Hurricane Katrina and his family was split, with his mom and sisters living in New Orleans and Clark and his dad living in Fort Worth.
When Clark was 14, he started to live with Scott permanently.
“He turned into my brother,” Scott said.
Lennox said at first, Clark was shy. He had had a hard life and seen people die in Hurricane Katrina. But over the years, she said, he blossomed, developing his dry sense of humor that was infectious.
“The real story is he was just a really special kid,” Lennox said. “He had a huge talent to basketball; he was incredible on the court.”
So good, in fact, that he became the best player at Arlington Heights High School as a freshman, Scott said. Scott would brag about his adopted brother constantly, reminding the seniors that Clark was the best in the school — maybe even the city.
As a sophomore, Clark tore his ACL, ruining what many thought would be a career in the NBA. But he still played, and played well. He taught Scott how to improve his own game, drilling him one-on-one. Scott went from a water boy on the bench to playing varsity his senior year, which he attributes to Clark’s lessons.
When they graduated, Scott went to Southwestern University in Georgetown, where he played basketball, and Clark went to Texas Wesleyan. After a year, Clark went back home to live with Lennox.
“He said, ‘Mom, thank you, and I’m sorry I screwed things up,’” Lennox said. “And I said, ‘Honey, no, no you didn’t.”
Lennox said Clark had been doing well the past few years. He had a serious girlfriend and cared deeply for her 4-year-old daughter. Lennox and Scott wanted him to move in with them in Austin, but Clark did not want to the area.
“He was in love with her and taking care of her child,” Scott said. “We’ve had a lot of other people die in Fort Worth and I would say, ‘Please be careful. Please don’t be that person.’”
‘I keep calling him’
Scott said he has never seen such an outpouring after someone’s death.
“People that bullied me in high school, they reached out to me today and we cried on the phone together,” he said. “He affected so many people regardless of race or whatever. He was so amazing, and it’s so sad.”
Velasco also met Clark in high school, and said Clark taught him how to be more outgoing. Velasco said when he thinks of Clark, he often pictures the way Clark and Scott would meet up with him after second period in school. Velasco would come out of one end of the hall and Scott and Clark would be at the other.
“I would turn the corner and would see through the sea of kids Larry’s head poking up and Blake jumping to see over people,” he said. “He would give me a big smile, every time. It would make my day every day, no matter what kind of day I was having.”
If he was having a bad day, Clark would put his arm around him, Velasco said, and tell him, “Look, Rob. Look what you have around you. You gotta appreciate what you have.”
Velasco and Clark still saw each other regularly, either grabbing drinks or playing video games that Clark was always better at. No matter what they were doing, Velasco was amazed at Clark’s ability to always make him laugh.
“He could definitely turn the ordinary into extraordinary,” he said.
The last time Velasco saw Clark, they played Super Smash Bros. and ate breakfast until Clark left to go to his girlfriend’s softball game. Nine days later, Clark was killed.
“I’m trying to fathom the fact that I can’t just text or call him,” Velasco said. “He could just say one word, a smile, a smirk and that’s all it would take.”
Scott had similar feelings.
“I keep calling him to see if he’ll answer,” he said.
Scott is planning a reunion of sorts for Clark and hoping to get everyone together whose lives were impacted by him. He hopes the gathering will show “the magnitude of the mark that he brought to this planet with his love, energy and humor.”
On Monday, Scott and his mother got tattoos to memorialize Clark.
A GoFundMe for Clark aims to raise money to have his body taken to New Orleans for burial. The campaign had raised about $2,000 as of Tuesday evening.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
