Clara Burdette

Clara Bradley Baker Wheeler Burdette (July 22, 1855 — January 6, 1954) was an American clubwoman and philanthropist based in Pasadena, California. She was the first president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs.

Not to be confused with Clara Burdett, mother of Francis Money-Coutts.
Clara Burdette
Clara Burdette, 1903
Born
Clara Bradley

(1855-07-22)July 22, 1855
East Bloomfield, New York]
DiedJanuary 6, 1954(1954-01-06) (aged 98)
Los Angeles County, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSyracuse University
Occupation(s)Suffragist, Pastoress

Early life

Clara Bradley was born in East Bloomfield, New York, the daughter of Albert H. Bradley and Laura Coville Bradley. She attended Syracuse University, graduating in the class of 1876.[1] She was one of the founders of the Alpha Phi sorority while she was a student at Syracuse.[2][3]

Career
Clara B. Burdette, from her book, The Rainbow and the Pot of Gold (1908)

Clara Burdette was the first president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs when it was founded in 1900.[4] She was also an officer of the General Federation of Women's Clubs from 1902 to 1904.[5] She was active in politics, including the 1932 presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover,[6] and in Pasadena social life. She was a major backer of the Pasadena Maternity Hospital.[7] She was a founder, second president, and life member of the Ebell Club, a women's social and philanthropic organization in Los Angeles.[8] She was director of the Southwest Museum and the Pasadena Humane Society. After suffrage was gained, she was an organizer of the national League of Women Voters and the Women's Legislative Council of California.[9]

With her third husband and others, she was a founder of Temple Baptist Church in Los Angeles. As a pastor's wife, or "Pastoress" (her preferred title), she was busy in the life of the congregation, organizing the women's activities and serving on numerous committees, and taking a leading role in building the Philharmonic Auditorium, which would house the large congregation and become a major venue for musical and cultural events in Los Angeles.[10] She wrote a book about her third husband and their church work together, The Rainbow and the Pot of Gold (1908).[11] She also edited some of her writings as Robert J. Burdette, His Message (1923).[12]

During World War I, she was involved with flood conservation in California, and was California field secretary for the Council of National Defense.[13] In 1926, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Syracuse University.[14]

Personal life
Home of Clara Burdette, before she married Robert, 1125 Sunnycrest and Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena, ca.1895-1900 (CHS-241)

Clara Bradley married three times.[15] She first married, in 1878, Nathaniel Milman Wheeler, a professor of Greek literature; they had a son, Roy B. Wheeler. The Wheelers moved to California for Professor Wheeler's health, but he died there in 1886. She married a second time, to Col. Presley Calvert Baker, in 1890; he died in 1893. In 1899 she married Robert Jones Burdette, a humor writer and lecturer who became an ordained Baptist minister. She was widowed a third time when Burdette died in 1914. She died in 1954, aged 98 years.[16] Her papers are archived at the Huntington Library.[17]

Clara Bradley Baker, Mrs. Robert J. Burdette, in Who's who among the women of California (1914)

References
  1. John William Leonard, Albert Nelson Marquis, eds., Who's Who in America (Marquis Who's Who 1908): 258.
  2. Jane Bancroft Robinson, "Impressions of the Convention" The Alpha Phi Quarterly (September 1922): 249-251.
  3. "Founder to be Feted at Alpha Phi Conclave" Los Angeles Times (June 9, 1938): D2.
  4. Gayle Gullett, Becoming Citizens: The Emergence and Development of the California Women's Movement, 1880-1911 (University of Illinois Press 2000): 114-115. ISBN 9780252093319
  5. Franklin Harper, ed., Who's Who on the Pacific Coast (Harper Publishing 1913): 83.
  6. "Club Woman Lauds Hoover" Los Angeles Times (October 3, 1932): A1.
  7. "Philanthropist to Mark her 95th Birthday Today" Los Angeles Times (July 22, 1950): A5.
  8. Crete Cage, "Orderliness Guides Life of Clara Burdette" Los Angeles Times (January 2, 1938): F5.
  9. "Dr. Clara Burdette, 98, Women's Leader, Dies" Los Angeles Times (January 7, 1954): A1.
  10. Catherine Parsons Smith, Making Music in Los Angeles: Transforming the Popular (University of California Press 2007): 97-104. ISBN 9780520933835
  11. Clara Bradley Burdette, The Rainbow and the Pot of Gold (Clara Vista Press 1908).
  12. "Brief Reviews: Robert J. Burdette, His Message Edited by His Wife, Clara B. Burdette" New York Times (March 4, 1923): BR20.
  13. "Woman Leader Gathers Bells" Los Angeles Times (October 6, 1930): A8.
  14. "Honor for Woman of Pasadena" Los Angeles Times (June 26, 1926): A2.
  15. "Dr. Clara Burdette, Noted Clubwoman" New York Times (January 7, 1954): 31.
  16. "Dr. Clara Burdette" Los Angeles Times (January 12, 1954): A4.
  17. Clara Bradley Burdette Papers: Finding Aid, Huntington Library, San Marino CA.
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