Josephine Marsalis Clardy Fox (August 13, 1881 - May 11, 1970) was an American businesswoman, musician, and philanthropist. Clardy Fox lived most of her life in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, where she donated land to build a school and a library. As a young person, she studied fine music and toured the United States and Europe. Parts of her estate and collections were left to the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

(UTEP).

Biography

Clardy Fox was born on August 13, 1881, in Liberty Township in

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, and was an only child. When she was one year old, her parents, Allie and Zeno, moved to

, where her father worked as a lawyer. She attended a religious school until 1891 and then entered public schools until 1895. That year, she went to Hosmer Hall in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

for finishing school. In 1901, Josephine's father, Zeno died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

. After his death, Clardy Fox went to

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, where she could get better training in the fine arts. She stayed with family friends and enrolled in a fine music school. The next year, she went to New York where she studied voice with Emilio Agramonte. She returned briefly to El Paso in 1902, where she performed as a soloist. Then she went on to tour the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. One of the people traveling to Europe in 1908 with Josephine Clardy Fox was Eugene Emmett Fox, who she would later marry. Josephine and Eugene married on January 20, 1916 in New York and made their home in El Paso. When the Great Depression hit El Paso, the couple and Josephine's mother had difficult times. Josephine helped her mother with the properties she managed in El Paso. On April 2, 1934, Eugene died after suffering an accident on a train. Josephine's mother died on March 23, 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Josephine Clardy Fox donated her time towards the war effort. She donated $1,000 to support the construction of the Southwestern Children's Home. During the mid 1940s, she and William J. Elliott began to develop land once used to grow

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

. Her real estate development grew her wealth. In 1955, Josephine Clardy Fox sold land to create the Fox Plaza Shopping Center in El Paso. In 1956, Clardy Fox donated land to the

El Paso Independent School District The El Paso Independent School District (or EPISD) is the largest school district serving El Paso, Texas (USA). Originally organized in 1883, it is currently the largest district in the Texas Education Agency's Educational Service Center (ESC) ...

to create a public school and in 1961, donated land for a public library in the

El Paso Public Library The El Paso Public Libraries is the municipal public library system of El Paso, Texas. The library serves the needs the public in El Paso, Texas, Chaparral, New Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It consists of 14 branches and one Bookmobile serv ...

system. In 1959, Clardy Fox broke her hip and again, in 1964, she broke the same hip. After the second break, she spent the rest of her life in the Providence Memorial Hospital. She died there on May 11, 1970. Josephine Clardy Fox was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. In her will, she left most of her estate to the

(UTEP). This donation also included her extensive hat collection.

References

Sources

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External links

Find-a-Grave
{{Authority control 1881 births 1970 deaths People from El Paso, Texas American women philanthropists American women in business