Kathleen Marella Clarke was born in 1891 at 'Rarere,' Kerikeri.
In 1911 she married Kenneth Lionel Matthews (born Kaitaia, 29 August 1886), an orchardist in the Birkdale district. Kenneth was a third-generation descendant of Mary Davis, daughter of the missionary Richard Davis who had co-founded the Waimate North mission station with George Clarke in 1830. The marriage thus joined two of New Zealand's early mission families.
Kathleen died at Whangarei on 12 September 1957. Kenneth died at Paihia on 28 February 1952 and is interred at Waimate North.
They had five children:
- Mervyn Wyatt (born 1912),
- Alfred Norman (1916–1966),
- Kenneth Richard Henry (1923–1980),
- Gwendolyn Evelyn Mary (born 1925), and
- David Desmond (born 1927).