Mary Clara Kangler Papers

Mary Clara Kangler, known as Clara, was born in Duryea, Pennsylvania in August 14, 1917 to Johanna Lovse Kangler and Alois Kangler. Clara was the second of two daughters; her older sister was called Elsie. The Kanglers later had a son who died when he was three. After the son's death, the family moved to Dunellen, New Jersey. Clara attended Bound Brook High School, graduating in 1934, and began attending New Jersey College for Women (later called Douglass), graduating with a degree and honors in English in 1938.

Between 1938 and 1944, Clara worked as a secretary at McGraw-Hill Publishing in New York City. She also attended graduate school at Columbia University, receiving a masters degree in English and comparative literature in 1944.

Between 1944 and 1946, Kangler worked as a secretary at several New York City companies, such D. Appleton Century Company and Simon and Schuster. In 1946, she suffered a nervous breakdown that lasted six months and also began treatment for a thyroid condition.

In November 1946, Kangler moved to Miami, Florida where she intended to stay for six months. She and a friend boarded with a family for several weeks. By the end of 1946 Kangler had begun working as a secretary for the Dade County Port Authority and had moved into an apartment with a woman named Millie.

In mid-January 1947, Kangler quit her job with the Port Authority and began working for a small company called Sidco. The job lasted only a few days and she took several more between January and March. Between March and May, Clara and Millie moved three times, first to a beach motel, then to the Blackstone Motel, and finally to the Maxine Hotel.

In July 1947, Clara left Miami and moved back home to Dunellen. She began teaching at a local business college. In September she committed suicide by hanging herself in the family basement. She was thirty years old when she died. (1)

(1) Some biographical information on Clara Kangler was taken from the following: Kramer, Deirdre A., and Dana R. Bowling, "A Life of Promise, A Life Foreshortened," (Paper prepared for the 14th Annual Adult Development Symposium of The Society for Research in Adult Development, June, 1999).