Clara Kountze née Palmer

Just your typical Victorian era image of a cute baby, right? I look at this little darling with the biggest and brightest eyes and would never have imagined all the incredible information I would find about how life turned out for C. A. Palmer from Omaha!

My first question: Omaha where? The photo studio Heyn was located in Omaha, Nebraska. The Heyn brothers were immigrants of Jewish heritage from Germany, who had moved to Omaha in the mid-19th century and set up their photo studio in the So. 15th Street in Omaha. They are mostly known for their photographs of Native Americans which they took in the late 1890s.

My next question: was this baby a boy or a girl? And question no. 3: was the date April 18, 1874 the date of birth or when this photo was taken?

I think I found the answers! Clara Agnes Palmer was born on December 20, 1873, in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, just 20 miles from Omaha. This would make her 5 months old in the photo. Her family was very prominent in Omaha. Her father Henry Emerson Palmer was a Civil War veteran, a pioneer, and a business man.

Henry Emerson Palmer established an insurance company in Omaha in 1870. His obituary (including the photo above) spread on two pages of the Omaha Daily Bee of April 3, 1911, and went into detail about all the honorary positions he held, charity and pioneer work he had done.

Clara’s older brother George Henry Palmer studied in the best schools and joined his father in the insurance business as the youngest commissioned insurance agent at just 15 years of age.

Clara’s brother (newspapers.com)

So it was no wonder that Clara’s future husband would have to show some credentials too. Her beau was Herman D. Kountze Jr., the son of a prominent Omaha family and banker Herman Kountze Sr. The future lovers moved in the same circles already in August 1896:

Link: newspapers.com

After Clara returned from a long trip to Europe in August 1899, the couple got engaged!

Link: newspapers.com

Nine months later, on April 18, 1900 (exactly 26 years after our photo was taken!), Clara and Herman were married in Omaha.

Link: newspapers.com

By then, Herman had joined the family business in New York, so that was where the newly-weds set up home.

In 1908, tragegy struck the Palmer family. Clara’s brother George Henry Palmer passed away of pneumonia at just 27 years of age. The heir of their father’s insurance business was gone. With modern medicine that young life could probably have been saved, but back then it was a matter of days. He left behind a young wife and two children under the age of 5. Perhaps it was the broken heart that caused their father’s fatal heart failure just a year later. In 1912, also Clara’s mother died of pneumonia. In just 4 years Clara lost her stronghold back home in Omaha. Now she had to build a new stronghold in New York. And she thrived at that.

By 1910, Clara had given birth to two children, Palmer and Elizabeth, and together with their many servants they resided in the East 56th Street in Manhattan. In 1912, daughter Natalie was born, and in 1916 Herman and Clara had their youngest, Mimi. By 1920, the family of six and their servants had moved to their residence in Park Avenue. And by 1930, their home was located at 8, 5th Avenue in Manhattan.

In 1922, Herman applied for a passport for travels to Europe on his banking business. Clara joined him on this trip to France, England, Italy, Germany and Belgium. Herman’s application includes photos of them both. What a pity that I can’t make out much of Clara’s face in the photo!

The Palmer-Kountze family often made headlines on the society pages of New York newspapers. They had standing, and they had money. They moved in the same circles with the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers.

And then the Wall Street crashed. 1931 was a dark year for the Kountze businesses. The Kountze brothers lost their banking license and had to file for insolvency.

Link: newspapers.com

The Palmer-Kountze family did not lose the roof over their heads, and continued to reside in Manhattan as well as travel internationally. I’m sure Clara and Herman could have done without any mention of their financial misfortune, so it didn’t help when their younger daughters Natalie and Mimi both got married in private ceremonies in 1933 and “excluded New York society on the whole”.

Link: newspapers.com

Now a few lines about Clara’s four children, since I could find photos for three of them on the Internet:

–Palmer Davis Kountze (1901-1963), Clara and Herman’s oldest, was a handsome fellow. He had a son, Hallett P. Kountze.

Palmer Davis Kountze FindaGrave.com

–Clara’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth Kountze (1902-1979) married Murray Leonard Hoffmann and they had a son Lindley Hoffmann, and a daughter Catherine Phyllis Hoffmann, later Taylor/Baron (1931-1997).

–Clara’s third child, Natalie Bliss Kountze (1911-1987) married Duncan Sterling Jr. in 1933, and they had a son, Duncan Sterling III (1934-1996). I found this beautiful photo of Natalie in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of June 19, 1933.

Link: newspapers.com

–Clara’s youngest, Marie Clare “Mimi” Kountze (1915-2005), was the one with the most mentions in newspapers. She was featured as a fashion model in several newspapers across the US. She surely had the same beautiful eyes like her mother. She married John Bigelow Clark in 1933, but the marriage ended in divorce just 4 years later. Daughter Cynthia was born in 1934, when Mimi was 19. In 1940, Mimi and her daughter were living in Oyster Bay, Nassau, New York. By 1950, she had moved to St. Paul, Ramsey, in Minnesota, where she worked as a store clerk in a retail candy store. Her second husband was Robert J. Davidson.

Link: newspapers.com

Link: newspapers.com

But now back to Clara. Clara passed away on April 27, 1951, in Manhattan, 4 years after she had been widowed. The press were eager to paint the picture of a lonely overdosing diva, addicted to sedatives, who left a junky estate. I wish instead more was said about her character and accomplishments after so many years of being featured by the same newspapers on their society pages. May she rest in peace, far away from all the yellow noise!

Link: newspapers.com

Link: newspapers.com

At least this one mentions the more important information about all the survivors, rather than speculations about her death:

Link: newspapers.com

I wish I had a photo of Clara as a grown-up. I’ve reached out to the Kountze Family Archive, but unfortunately they had no photos of her. Her children were all so beautiful. I’m sure Clara was a stunning woman too!