University of Kansas
THE JAYHAWKER Yearbook 1927
Pi Beta Phi Greek Sorority Sisters
CLASS of 1927 -OF 1928 -OF 1929
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National Park Seminary
Class of 1926
Devoted Son of Clara Olive Snyder ' 27
Pi Beta Phi Sorority Sisters - University of Kansas - Alpha Chapter - 1927
Mary Agnes Patterson '27 Kansas City - Helen Walton '27 Lawrence - Mary Jane Oliver '28 Joplin
Margaret Heller '28 Kansas Ctiy - Wilma Oliver '28 Joplin - Elizabeth Ball '28 Webb City
Julia Hamilton '29 Kansas City - Clara Olive Snyder '28 Joplin - Mary Louise Olmstead '29 Sedalia
Virginia Power '30 Kansas City - Susan Keith '30 Wichita - Alice Sutton '30 Houston
For a copy of the 1927 Jayhawker Yearbook - page 282, featuring KU Pi Beta Phi Sorority Sisters
Contact: E Yearbook.com Pi Beta Phi Kansas University Pi Beta Phi Foundation
click to view Tom Online
biographical sketch
Her Mom Mabel Mitchell Snyder
John Shepherd,
Clara Olive Snyder Shepherd
1952 (Spring River, Kansas)
Tom Blaise Shepherd, Photographer
Mabel John Helen Mitchell Clara Olive
Clara Olive
Honeymoon,
January 1935
National Park Seminary- 1926
Clara Olive Snyder's Homes
Guanajuato
Joplin I Joplin II
Snyder Blaise Shepherd
****
Clara Olive Snyder was born in Piqua, Ohio on February 16, 1906. The daughter of Mabel Darlington Mitchell and John Abbott Benham Snyder, she was reared in Galena, Kansas and Joplin, Missouri, where she studied the violin with virtuoso Rhetia Hesselberg, aunt of screen actor Melvin (Hesselberg) Douglas.
She graduated from National Park Seminary, Forest Glen, Md. in 1926.
She attended University of Kansas at Lawrence from 1926 to 1927,
where she was affiliated with Pi Beta Phi social sorority.
In 1934, Clara Olive married mining engineer Dudley Eugene Blaise, the son
of Tulsa oil baron E. F. "Gene" Blaise. In 1937, she and her husband moved to
the City of Guanajuato in central Mexico, where the Blaise family
operated El Cedro Silver Mining Co.
Following a 1949 divorce from Mr. Blaise,
who had abandoned Clara Olive and their two infant sons in 1938,
Clara Olive married Charles M. Shepherd,
a native of England and New York City, who was
then treasurer of the Empire District Electric Co. at Joplin.
Charles Shepherd's body was found in the East River of NYC
in 1955, a possible suicide . . . read more
A violinist, pianist, pipe organist, choreographer and director,
she produced musical variety shows for civic organizations throughout the USA during the 1940s for Kay Chandler, Founder of Chandler Productions.
Clara Olive was also affiliated as a fund raiser with the American Cancer Society,
the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and the American Arthritis Foundation, and a member of the board of directors
of the Jasper County Missouri Heart Association.
Clara Olive was also a member of the board of directors of Joplin Little
Theater and Joplin Woman's Club. She was president of Ozark Writers Guild and an organizer and sponsor of St. Philip's Young Peoples Service League,
in which her two sons, John and Tom, held leadership roles.
A photographer, moviemaker and landscape and portrait artist, Clara Olive took up the art of weaving during the 1950s. She created her own designs on her hand loom, including finely woven placemats, which are now collector's items.
The Art of Weaving
by Clara Olive Shepherd
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* Kay Chandler, Founder-Producer *
* Clara Snyder Blaise, Producer-Director *
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son of Hon. Clara Olive Snyder ' 27
Pi Beta Phi - Alpha Chapter - Kansas University - 1927
Mary Agnes Patterson '27 Kansas City - Helen Walton '27 Lawrence - Mary Jane Oliver '28 Joplin
Margaret Heller '28 Kansas Ctiy - Wilma Oliver '28 Joplin - Elizabeth Ball '28 Webb City
Julia Hamilton '29 Kansas City - Clara Olive Snyder '28 Joplin - Mary Louise Olmstead '29 Sedalia
Virginia Power '30 Kansas City - Susan Keith '30 Wichita - Alice Sutton '30 Houston
Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi - Pi Beta Phi
Ring Ching a Ching . . . Ring Ching a Ching . . . Pi Beta Phi . . . Pi Beta Phi