Clarabelle Decker Collection, MS 86-09, Special Collections, UNLV Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Donated by Donna Andress.
Donna Crail-Rugotzke, March 1995.
This collection is open for research.
For permission to reproduce or publish from this collection, please contact the Director of Special Collections.
Clarabelle Decker was born Clarabelle Douglas in Bellevue, Colorado on November 3, 1908. She and her family later moved to Oatman, Arizona. Eventually Decker would attend Northern Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University) where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. She earned a Master of Arts degree in English and School Supervision from the University of Washington and a degree in library sciences from the University of Southern California.
Decker’s educational experience prepared her for a career as a teacher and as a librarian. She taught school in Arizona, Nevada, and California. She also worked as a librarian in Northern Arizona. Decker later became the first Clark County Supervisor of Libraries and assisted in setting up 40 libraries in this county.
Mrs. Decker’s other accomplishments include her writing and her involvement in professional organizations. As an author, Clarabelle Decker contributed articles to the Nevada Educational Bulletin and to the Wilson Library Bulletin. Decker’s other works include a booklet “Old Oatman, Arizona,” published in 1970, and her book Common Sense English Grammar, published in 1980. Her various poems reflected her creativity and some of these poems appeared in “A String of Lights” (1970).
Decker was also active in several professional organizations, including the Las Vegas Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Las Vegas Education Association. Decker helped organize the Nevada Library Association. The Clarabelle Decker Elementary School is named after her. In 1984, Clarabelle Decker died; she was survived by a daughter, Donna Andress, who donated this collection shortly thereafter.
The Clarabelle Decker collection contains materials that reflect her life as a teacher, librarian, and writer. This collection includes printed teaching aids such as children’s books and coloring posters. It also includes a copy of the Nevada Education Bulletin and Directory (1953) and directories published by the Retired Teachers’ Association. Decker’s guide for junior high school libraries is also part of the collection. The collection contains a book, manuscript, booklets, and poems written by Decker as well as two short biographies of her. Also included are materials from the Clarabelle Decker Elementary School and a 1977 letter from Governor Mike O’Callahan congratulating her for the school being named in her honor.
The majority of the teaching materials in this collection date from 1926-1952. Some of these materials came from the Nelson School, Nevada. Clarabelle Decker’s writings date from 1954-1980, including her manual for junior high libraries. The various directories were published by the Retired Teacher’s Association from 1979-1980. Miscellaneous fliers on the Clarabelle Decker Elementary School are from 1978.
Most of the materials in the collection are published works, including books, booklets, posters, and fliers. The strengths of this collection include its variety of materials. Although the collection is small, it nevertheless offers the researcher the opportunity to examine the different facets of Decker’s multiple careers. The small size of the collection, however, may present problems for researchers who wish more in-depth information.
This collection is arranged primarily by the different careers of Decker and the materials are in chronological order within each career. Box one contains materials pertaining to Decker’s teaching career and box two contains her library career and manuscript materials and ends with her activities after retirement.
Materials removed from this collection and sent to UNLV Library Acquisitions include: American Railroads: Their Growth and Development, Christmas Novelties, First Aid (Metropolitan Life) in 2 editions, Handbook of First Aid (U.S. Office of Civil Defense) and Northern Arizona State University Bulletin: Flagstaff, 1966-1967. Items relating to Nevada were removed to the shelves of UNLV Special Collections and consist of: Fish and Game Laws of Nevada, 1949-1951 and 1951-1953, High Roller Magazine April/June 1982, Constitutions of the United State of America and the State of Nevada (1948), State of Nevada Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1950-1952, Nevada Education Bulletin, 1955, and Oscar Lewis’ Silver Kings: The Lives and Times of Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O’Brien, Lords of the Nevada Comstock Lode (1967). Other items removed from the collection were an October 1955 issue of the NEA Journal (to UNLV Periodicals) and 1978 Federal and State Legislative Program, published by national Retired Teachers’ Association and American Association of Retired Persons (to UNLV Government Documents).
For related topics and further information see the following collections:
Hazel Baker Denton Collection, MS 97-03
Elbert Edwards Collection, MS 90-32
Maude Frazier Collection, MS 30