Monika,
For your interest, it appears that my problem stemmed from changes in Illustartor.
I have Illustrator CS3 on another computer and when I take a file with a clipping mask and Save As an EPS, it results in a file with only the image. With CS6, it appears that it always saves the full artboard,so you have to reduce the art board first and place your clipped mask on it to get just the image saved.
thanks for all your help.
Dave