The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

Chapter 19
Clinton McClary
and KAthryn Gerhardt
Clinton Wilbur McClary,
Nancy McClary’s grandfather,
was born on 22 Dec 1913 in
Cooper County, Mo. He died on
15 Mar 1993 in Boonville, Mo.
He was buried in Billingsville,
Mo., in St. Johns Cemetery. He
married Helen Kathryn
Gerhardt on 21 Jul 1938 in
Billingsville, Mo.
Clinton was the youngest of
two children of Ray and Stella
McClary. He was named after
the minister who married Ray
and Stella. He was born in a
three room log house near the
Lamine River just east of the
Blackwater junction on Highway
40 (now Interstate 70). Clinton
remembered from visiting the
site when he was a little older
that there was a very large oak
tree in the yard.
In the early 1980s, Clinton
and Bert visited the site again.
The house was gone, but there
was a very large oak log lying on
the site.
Clinton’s brother Everett
(Buster) was three years older.
Stella described Buster as a
“hard-headed little character,”
saying “you could talk to him ‘til
you were green in the face, and it
was the same as pouring water
on a goose’s back.” She said Ray
used to give him awful whippings.
Clinton got too close to
Buster once when Buster was
chopping corn, and as a result
had a scar above his eye the rest
of his life. He also lost a thumb
nail once when he and Buster
were operating a cider press.
~ 73 ~
Clinton said
Buster wrecked
the old ’26 coupe
they had because
he only knew one
way to drive:
“open it up.”
Buster did not go
to high school,
married when he
was 30, operated
his own trucking
business, and died
of hepatitis when he was 41.
Stella described Clinton as
a “good boy” who was more
interested in school than Buster.
She remembers giving him only
“one good whipping.” Buster
had broken an arm and could
not go to school, so he could not
make sure Clinton got home
after school. Clinton stopped to
play at the neighbors, so Stella
got a maple sprout and went
after him. She and Clinton both
remember her following him all
the way home, whipping his legs
Elmer Gerhardt, ca. 1916.
The Callans and McClarys
Clinton McClary’s Blackwater High School
graduation portrait., ca. 1934.
with the sprout all the way.
The family moved around a
lot when Clinton was growing up,
living in twelve locations by the
time Clinton graduated from
high school. Clinton was a good
student and attended school in
each neighborhood where they
lived. It wasn’t always close to
school and he usually had to
walk. When Buster was big
enough to drive they had an old
car. In the winter they had no
antifreeze, so they would drain
the radiator when they got to
school, carry the bucket inside,
then put it back in when it was
time to go home. When Clinton