@LIFESTYLE
envisioned when she stopped here on her way to Hot Springs
And then Clara got sick. She turned again to the church. The
from Iowa, some time between 1942 and 1946. “I was pulled
nuns took care of her until she died and she left the property,
into the story immediately. It’s been a challenge to piece the
which is just about ten acres, to them. That was in 1966.
story together. I do have a few letters from her. I know she was once a nun in the Catholic Church. At one point she contracted tuberculosis. Her family had a bit of money and they offered to send her to Switzerland to recover if she would leave the convent. The sisters couldn’t afford to do that.” Rebecca can only speculate why Clara’s family wanted her to leave. What she does know is that once back, Clara continued to work in the church as a layperson, and taught school. She never married. Her dream was a crafts school, and when she stepped from her car and looked out over the majesty of the mountains, she knew she’d found the right place. Soon after, she used her talents of persuasion to buy four lots from Fort Smith businessmen, who used the land as a weekend retreat. “They sold it to her for a lot less than what it was worth,” Rebecca says. Rebecca feels a kind of kinship with Clara. She understands Clara spent twenty years fighting for the Craft School of the
how much she loved this place, how many hours she spent
Ozarks. She drew the blueprints that included an elevator,
raising money. “She had connections across the country and
poured the concrete for the front porch by herself, and gleaned
she reached out to those people for donations.” She also feels
old barns for wood. “You take these walls down to the bare
a responsibility to Clara to finally finish the school. “This woman
bones and you’ll see green boards, barn wood. It looks like she
saw an elevator going to the third floor, back in the forties, in
was struggling to get this place finished.”
this tiny place in Arkansas. Can you imagine?” Rebecca asks. “So I don’t think my dream of finishing it in my lifetime is
It didn’t happen. The second and third floors were never completed.
much of a stretch. We’re a 501C-3 non-profit. Arkansas has so
The elevator is still just a dream. The school had taken all her
many philanthropists. You just have to find the right person,
money, and she’d donated part of the original plot for the Catholic
someone who’s interested in Miss Muxen’s legacy. I think if I
church next door. “She was able to walk from her house to Mass. I
had $2 million to finish the building, with all the help we get
think that must have been very important to her.”
from our great volunteers we could get a lot of the labor done.
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