Claire Masters

1932 - 2026

Claire Masters died March 8, 2026. She was the daughter of Emily Taylor and Garland Lyman Armstrong, both Texans. She was Texas born and bred, calling Waco her home town though born in Dallas. She attended Miss Duncan's Kindergarten School, Sanger Avenue Grammar School, West Junior High and graduated from Waco High School in 1949. In young adulthood, she lived in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco where she worked in the field of advertising. It was in San Francisco where she met Peter James Masters. Married in 1963, they settled in Lafayette, California and had one child, Alda Edith.

Claire and her husband retired from the Bay Area to Waco in 1983. She delighted in returning to her hometown where she still had family and childhood friends. She became associated with several community organizations: Henry Downs Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Friends of Waco McLennan County Library and Historic Waco Foundation. Claire was well known in Waco for her popular vintage hat fashion show, an idea she brought with her from Northern California. These shows were always given to benefit either Historic Waco Foundation or Fort House Museum.

Claire served for 15 years on the Board of Directors of Historic Waco Foundation while volunteering as curator of the organization's collection of Victorian and Edwardian garments and flat textiles. She had discovered this collection at the home of Mrs. Maurice Barnes and spent the next 20 years organizing and cataloging "this mother lode of Waco history." She gave it its name, The Heritage Collection, and from it, she created 29 exhibits over a 28 year span. Claire served many years on the Fort House Committee, overseeing the re-creation of Fort's 19th century kitchen a two-year project.

From the year 2000 to the middle of 2015, Claire wrote her monthly column for the Waco Tribune-Herald's "Portals to the Past" in "Waco Today" magazine. "Portals" has been a favorite for many a Waco reader. Copies of each of her columns are now in The Texas Collection at Baylor University. In 2011, she published a book, "Selections from Portals to the Past" with all profits from its sale going to Historic Waco Foundation.

Culminating her volunteer work in this community, Claire was the recipient of two notable awards: The 2013 Historic Landmark Preservation Award to an individual given by the City of Waco and the 2014 National Historic Preservation Award given by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington DC.

In mid-2015 Claire and her husband, Peter, moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to live near their daughter. Claire was preceded in death by Peter in 2025. She is survived by their daughter, Alda Edith Masters-Smith, wife of Gregory Alan Smith. The couple resides in Hayden, Idaho. By them, Claire was blessed with her sole grandchild, Jacob Peter Smith.

All memorials may be made to the Mary Frances McLaughlin Olson Scholarship of the Henry Downs Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution of McLennan Community College Foundation, 1400 College Drive, Waco, 76708.