Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08

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Clara Bailey Bunting taught that
- gentle art
The two parlors of the modest
home she occupied with her husband Doctor
Bunting, were given over to her work It
kept her busy. There were two babies, and
in those days the doctors practice, while never
destined to be a large one, was of sufficient
proportions to keep the telephone bell con-
&spntly jangling
It was only Clara Bailey Buntings perennial
enthusiasm for her work that made it possible
for her to carry on her fragile shoulders the
triple duties of wife. mother and elocution
teacher.
As Clara used to say of herself, when she
married George Bunting, she had not forfeited
her stage career, but had merely postponed it.
And George, who dotted on Clara's recitative
talents, agreed that as soon as the children
were Of more self-suficient age, Clara owed
1t to herself and to her art to resume her
preparation for career that had been nipped
In its very bud by her young romance and
subsequent marriage to the good looking ply
stefan.
And of course what subsequently happened
was that, as the years drifted, Clara became
more and more involved in home ties-the lives
of her children and the problems of her hns-
band.
Teaching elocution was about as far as Clara
seemed to advance toward her ultimate goal
the theater
a ND yet the quality of her enthusiasm re-
manned undoused. When she was 80,
bit heavier, her blonde prettiness bit paler,
her never too robust health bit frazier, the
sweet blue eyes of Clara Bailey Bunting were
still fixed resolutely upon the destination of
the theater
There was something undeniably dramatic
20 Clara Bailey Bunting: with her maturity
there came a Lady Macbethian quality to her
voice and manner. She deepened, SO to speak;
took on new poise, and worked more indie
fatigably than ever with "her girls" as she
called them.
The young girls from the high schools and
finishing school of the town came in numbers
to study elocution with Clara Bailey Bunting
1t soon became apparent, even to Clara who
loved her husband, that he was not destined
for success In his work. And yet because she
liked the nobility Of the doctors task, she dis
Outraged her husbands valiant offers to aban-
don his medical practice for a more lucrative
mercantile position, and carried on her own
shoulders the upkeep of the little home.
BY this time their children, pair of pretty
were studying dramatic art with their mother.
And how Clara Bailey Bunting worked with
these girl Into them she poured all of her
diverted energies
The doctor dotted on these twins, and spent
most Of his time accompanying them 70 this
and that entertainment. No local charity
event, children's festival, or community occa-
sion, was complete without them Their
mother was kept busy by these entertainments.
arranging new readings, new dances, new little
dialogue scenes for the children
A BOUT this time Clara began to prepare
for an enterprise that had long been
snoldering in her mind. Together she and
the doctor wrote little one-act skit which
was to comprise three characters: Clara and
her two daughters. The idea was to carry
this skit, when completed, to New York.
That was the year that the doctor developed
q spot on his lung.
The next six catastrophe months saw this
Little family, bewildered by adversely packing