Introduction

Biography

Clara was the daugh­ter of Jai­rus M. Still­man and Cla­ra Le­nore Lang­wor­thy. Her mo­ther died when she was born, and she was raised by her grand­par­ents, the Will­iam L. Lang­wor­thys of Watch Hill, Rhode Is­land.

Clara at­tend­ed the Bos­ton Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic, Al­fred Uni­ver­si­ty and Mil­ton Col­lege, re­ceiv­ing mu­sic­al train­ing in all these schools. Her fa­ther was di­rect­or of vo­cal mu­sic at Mil­ton Col­lege for ma­ny years.

While at­tend­ing Mil­ton Col­lege, Cla­ra met Dr. Jus­tin Her­bert Bur­dick, a lo­cal phy­si­cian, whom she mar­ried in 1898.

Dr. Bur­dick died in a car ac­ci­dent Ap­ril 3, 1939. Cla­ra was cri­ti­cal­ly in­jured in the ac­ci­dent: she had 13 brok­en bones, and ne­ver ful­ly re­cov­ered.