Welcome to Forest Glen - A National Treasure - Take the Alumnae Tour
enter completed restoration site
Forest Glen, Maryland ~ Suburb ~ Washington, D. C.
Hon. Clara Olive Snyder Shepherd, Alumna
Class of 1926 - Chi Psi Epsilon - Violinist
"Education is the armament of peace"
National Park Seminary at Forest Glen was a privately-endowed school for
young women. During World War II, the U.S. government seized the property
by right of eminent domain for use as a Walter Reed Hospital convalescent annex.
In 1972 the Seminary was registered as a National Historical Site.
Today the 32-acre preservation has undergone redevelopment.
The Master Plan, now completed, includes restoration of 25 historic Seminary buildings, plus new construction of single-family, multi-family and rental homes.
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Clara Olive Snyder was born February 16, 1906 at Piqua, Ohio. She was the daughter of John Abbott Benham Snyder and Mabel Mitchell Snyder, who settled in Galena, Kansas in 1909, where they founded the Galena Harrow Factory, and in Joplin, Missouri in 1914, where they founded the Snyder Bus Line.
Clara Olive was graduated from Joplin High School in 1924 and from National Park Seminary, Forest Glen, Maryland in 1926.
The Forest Glen Seminary, a preservation of architectural excellence, which is situated in the northwest section of Washington, D.C., was declared a National Historical Monument by an Act of Congress in 1972.
Miss Snyder's Chi Psi Upsilon sorority sisters and classmates included: Litelle Funkhauser, Atlanta; Minerva Kraft; May Morgan, New Orleans; Dorothy Simpson, Elmira, New York; and Anne White Smith, Temple, Texas.
Clara Olive's cousin Helen Mitchell Frampton, St. Louis, was a member of the Class of 1927. Helen's younger sister Clara Frampton also later attended National Park.
Take a tour of National Park. Also, view the Forest Glen Series, a collection of paintings and drawings of National Park Seminary by Gerald King. Purchase the softcover book: Enchanted Forest Glen: The Endangered Legacy of the National Park Seminary Historic District. 86 pp. Published in 1999. Price: $35. Amazon.com
Clara Olive was an accomplished violinist, organist and pianist. She produced and directed musical revues for civic organizations throughout the United States during the 1940s. She was affiliated with the American Cancer Society, the Arthritis Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
In 1934 she married Dudley E. Blaise, owner of the Admiralty Zinc Company, Picher, Oklahoma, and El Cedro Silver Mining company, Guanajuato, Mexico. In 1949 she was granted a divorce from Mr. Blaise on grounds of desertion. She then married Charles M. Shepherd, treasurer/director of the Empire District Electric Company, who drowned in New York's East River in 1955.
Clara Olive suffered multiple complications resulting from negligent surgical procedures, following a hip operation at St. John's Hospital, Joplin in 1962 and a knee operation at St. Francis Hospital, Tulsa, in 1976. She was improperly represented by her attorneys in a $25,000 malpractice lawsuit filed against St. John's and the negligent surgeon.
John W. Scott had previously represented Clara Olive in a divorce case and for other matters. Because he was general council for St. John's Medical Center, Scott referred her to Edward Farmer, who filed the lawsuit. However, Farmer was running for Governor, so he referred her to Lloyd Roberts and Jack Fleischaker, who settled out of court for a mere $400. Mrs. Shepherd, who was left without a hip as a result of the surgery at St. John's, was unable to return to work and pay off medical bills and the mortgage on her home. She resultantly lost her home.
Clara Olive was survived by two sons: Thomas Mitchell Blaise Shepherd, publisher; and John Snyder Blaise Shepherd, who died homeless in 2002, some 30 years after undergoing brain tumor surgeries at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, the Mayo Clinic and Parkland Medical Center in Dallas.
Chandler Musical Productions - 1940
highlight photo for view of classmates
Dorothy Simpson & Clara Olive
View Scrapbook
Mount Vernon Seminary alumna
National Park Alumnae
View
Existential Society of America
Online
Home in Del Mar
The
Mabel Snyder
Memorial
Online
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The Joplin-CarthageTimes
Serving Southwest Missouri
Thomas Shepherd, Publisher
Joplin Community Concert
Honors Concerteers
1959 Season
Mrs. Thomas Johnson
Helen (Mrs. Sol) Newman
Marilyn Blanke
Clara Olive Snyder Shepherd
Joplin Globe story
Joplin's Oldest & Finest
Spencer, Scott & Dwyer, P.C.
Well-Connected Attorneys At Law
Joplin, Missouri
About the Firm
1956 - Clara Olive Shepherd Presents
Check to Gene Cantrell
Joplin Globe Story
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Charles Maynard Shepherd 1895 - 1955
husband of Clara Olive portrait
The Shepherd Family
Joplin, Missouri
Charles Shepherd Funeral
NYC 1955
Bequeathed to Theosophists
by Tom Blaise de Shepherd
read online
paintings by Gerald King
view collection