Taylor Rose Clarke, journalist and organ donation advocate from East Rockaway, dies at 24

Taylor Rose Clarke was many things to different people.

The 24-year-old East Rockaway native was a sister, a daughter, a promising young journalist, an organ donation advocate and a Jonas Brothers superfan. She was a good friend to many, she sent unsolicited music playlists to her sister and loved her rescue dogs Millie and T.J.

After she received a heart transplant in 2016 following heart failure from mitochondrial disease, she modeled a life of purpose and practiced gratitude for the extra time the procedure afforded her, those who knew her said.

"She just was just the funniest person. Super smart and driven. A role model to really everybody," said her older sister, Samantha Clarke of Fairfax, Virginia. "Even my parents and I say, in some ways, we were able to look up to her."

Clarke died on July 9 of complications from mitochondrial disease, which affects energy production and cell function. It was two weeks before her 25th birthday.

Samantha Clarke described their family of four — including the siblings' mother, Laura, and father, Jack — as a tight unit that turned to one another throughout Taylor Clarke’s illness.

Taylor Clarke’s first taste of journalism was working for The East Rockaway Gull, her high school paper. After high school she decided to pursue an education degree from Marist College, her sister said. She left Marist after getting sick and then decided to pursue journalism following the heart transplant.

"When you get a second chance at life it makes you think, and it's like, ‘Well, actually, I really love doing this,’ " Samantha Clarke said. "She reevaluated her priorities."

Taylor Clarke later enrolled at Hofstra University, where she received a degree in journalism in 2020 and served as editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Hofstra Chronicle.

At the Chronicle, a story she wrote about the hazing-related suspension of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu earned her numerous honors, including the Fair Media Council’s 2020 Folio Award for student enterprise and the Press Club of Long Island’s 2020 award for student journalism's best newspaper reporter.

Clarke went on to internships with Newsday and NBC and had accepted a fellowship with Business Insider before she became sick, her sister said.

Kelly Fincham — a former Hofstra associate professor in journalism and now the director of the global media and communication program at the National University of Ireland, Galway — said Clarke was one of the hardest-working students she has known and gave 110% to everything she did. Fincham described teaching her as an absolute joy.

"It breaks my heart to know that Taylor has left us," Fincham said. "She was truly one in a million and the world is poorer for her passing. I can only hope her family knows how special she was to all of us at Hofstra and how much we treasured her time with us."

Newsday social media editor Gabriella Vukelic said Clarke was so talented that her social media internship for summer 2019 was extended through the end of that year.

"She was so sweet and always so kind and a fast learner," Vukelic said. "We even bonded over being Jonas Brothers superfans when we were younger. My deepest condolences to her family. She will be missed."

Clarke lived mostly a normal life following the 2016 transplant but got sick again last September, her sister said. She received care at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla from that time until her death.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Wednesday at St. Raymond’s Roman Catholic Church in East Rockaway. She was buried in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Old Westbury.

Samantha Clarke said her sister, who volunteered with the organ donation advocacy organization Live On New York, would want others to educate themselves on organ donation and sign up for their state's donor registry.

"She lived the most incredible life and accomplished so many things post-transplant," she said. "She really took that second chance at life and grabbed it."

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.