Clara C. Starr (b. Fry) (1849-1925) was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and died in Marshall, Texas. In the early 1850s she moved with her family to San Augustine, Texas, and then to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she married James F. Starr, a land agent, in 1868. James was a major in Company H, 4th Texas Cavalry of the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. The Starrs moved to Marshall in 1870 and remained there for the rest of their lives. They both joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1897. Their daughters Clara C. Pope, Harriet J. Spellings, Pamela O. Kieley, Ruth G. Blake, and Mary S. Niendorff (all b. Starr) joined on June 4, 1898, and their daughter Sallie C. McGee (b. Starr) joined on November 7, 1899. Clara and James were both listed as practitioners of Christian Science in The Christian Science Journal, James from 1900-1902 and Clara from 1900-1904. They donated the land for a Christian Science church to be built in Marshall in1896, and James served as its first reader in 1902.

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