Clara May Averill Colby

Clara May Averill was born on March 18, 1878 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Charles and Laura Rogers Averill. (more specific citing: https://ancestors.familysearch.org/ ). Averill lived with her parents, who came to Libertyville in 1887. She graduated from the Chicago College of Music and Education, which was unusual at the time for women to pursue college degrees. She taught in Libertyville schools and for many years she was the drama coach at Libertyville Township High School. In 1905, at the age of 27, Averill married a prominent lawyer from Libertyville named Elhanan Wayne Colby, who later became mayor of Libertyville. They had one son, John.

Clara was a founding member of the Alpha Club (later the Libertyville Women’s Club) and served two terms as President. The Alpha Club was a group of women who were responsible for the creation of a lending library (the forerunner of Cook Memorial Library), which was known as a place for free-thinking women to discuss the issues of the day. (citing: https://shelflife.cooklib.org/2016/03/23/man-at-washtub-wife-votes-an-election-year-retrospective/ ).

According to Barry, “There really was not much coverage of any local suffragist activity in the local newspapers,  but I argue that the Alpha Club was definitely an incubator.” Barry added that Clara has been quoted to say, “There are probably twice as many women in Libertyville [as] there are men…and while we have no regular suffrage organization, our literary club has discussed the question very thoroughly and we have many ardent suffragists.”

In addition to participating in the Alpha Club Clara took on other influential positions in the Libertyville community such as assisting in the organization of the Libertyville Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and was a board member of the very first Cook Memorial Library Board. Clara is buried at Lakeside Cemetery in Libertyville.