Rochester can be a pretty serious place. Too many smart people. Too much cloud cover.
Thus, when someone comes along who is just plain fun, he or she is celebrated. Such was the case with Clayla Ward, a woman who made Rochester smile and loved doing it, a woman whose name belongs on our list of Remarkable Rochesterians.
The measure of Ward’s prominence at one time in Rochester is shown by how her death at age 83 on Aug. 27, 1973, was reported the next day in the Democrat & Chronicle.
The front-page story bemoaned the end of an era, “the passing of an age: An age of style and elegance, of grace and tact.”
The editorial page said farewell to Ward, “A Very Special Lady.”
And there were two stories on the features page, one an obituary. The other was an appreciation that described Ward as “the star of Rochester society.”
The appreciation made clear that Ward didn’t just hang with the rich.
“She knew virtually every clerk at Sibley’s (Department Store), where she was a public relations adviser,” Linda Chiavaroli wrote. “She never had a limousine but went everywhere in Green Cabs. All the drivers knew her.”
Reflecting the style of newspapers of the day, a rule insisted that women be identified by their husband’s name, the stories on the features page first identified her as Mrs. F. Hawley Ward. That made clear she was married to a member of the family that owned the prosperous Ward’s Natural Science Establishment. (Now Ward’s Science.)
The stories also noted that “Clayla” was born “Clara Louise Werner.” For reasons not made clear, she came to prefer “Clayla.”
Ward grew up loving the theater and contemplated a life on the stage. Broadway never materialized, but she was one of the founders of the Community Players in Rochester and appeared in their productions.
She was also a devoted patron and benefactor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She always dressed to the nines; she always sat in the same seat. RPO conductor David Zinman dedicated a concert to her after she died.
By all accounts, by sheer force of personality, Ward owned the room wherever she went.
“Her resonate voice and deep, rippling laugh rolled up from her toes to command the attention of all,” wrote Elizabeth Brayer in “George Eastman: A Biography.”
Ward wasn’t born into riches, but her family was prominent, as her father, William Edward Werner, was a much-admired judge on the New York state Court of Appeals.
There were three daughters in the family, and another, Caroline, married Frank Gannett, founder of what is now Gannett Co. Inc., owner of the Democrat & Chronicle.
According to online accounts, Clayla had a long list of gentleman admirers, a varied lot that included the poet e.e. cummings, as well as George Eastman.
In the Eastman biography, Brayer devotes three pages to the friendship between Eastman and the then Clara Louise Werner. He was in his early 60s. She was in her mid-20s when they got to know each other.
“Clara Louise, if I were younger, I’d elope with you,” Eastman once said over champagne.
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Eastman mentioned eloping at least one other time, but, according to Brayer, Clara Louise let him know that marriage wasn’t in the cards.
They remained friends, and Eastman even threw a prenuptial party for Clayla and Hawley Ward, a widower with one daughter, when they married in 1922. (They would go on to have two sons.)
The couple lived on Grove Place in Rochester, where the Ward family had homes for years. Clayla was fiercely loyal to the area, which is near the Eastman Theatre. She even refused to move after she was mugged and robbed once.
As the obituaries made clear, Clayla just kept on being Clayla, someone who made it a point to make Rochester smile.
Clayla Ward: A Remarkable Rochesterian
As recommended recently by Callista Card and earlier by Jeanne Grace, let’s add the name of this exuberant benefactor of the arts to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians that can be found at: https://data.democratandchronicle.com/remarkable-rochesterians/
Clara Louise “Clayla” Ward (1889-1973): The recipient of the Civic Medal of the Rochester Museum & Science Center in 1965 for her contributions to Rochester, she was the patron of a wide variety of cultural institutions including RMSC, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Memorial Art Gallery. She was also president of the Rochester Broadway Theatre League and one of the founders of the Community Players. A native of Rochester, she helped form the Western New York division of the Women’s Land Army during World War I, and during World War II, she prominently supported efforts to sell war bonds.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at [email protected] or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454
