Clair Blank

Clarissa Mabel Blank was an American author, writer of the Beverly Gray mystery series and four other novels.

Blank was born on August 5, 1915, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the only surviving child of Bessie Hickman and Edgar Henry Blank. Her father worked as a loom fixer at a silk mill, before finding employment at a clothing plant in Germantown; in 1920, 1930 and 1940, his occupation was listed as a "knitter." Clair attended Herbst Elementary School until she was about ten, when her family moved to the Olney section of Philadelphia. In contrast to her parents, who each completed nine years of schooling, at the age of 18 Clair had graduated from Olney High School with honors and seen the first four books in the Beverly Gray series published.

Blank attended the Peirce School of Business Administration and took a job in Philadelphia as a typist for the Keystone Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of the Atlantic Refining Company. By 1940 she had become a secretary there, and, still living with her parents, earned about $1,500 a year. She joined the American Women's Voluntary Services during World War II, driving Army officers around when they came to town. In 1941 George Elmer Moyer, whom Clair had known growing up in Allentown, moved to Philadelphia; the two married in 1943. Moyer attained the rank of sergeant while serving in the Army for two years, from February 1944 to February 1946, with a year in foreign service bookended by two six-month periods in domestic service. A "skilled welder," he was employed at the Budd Company after his military service, working on automobiles, tank construction, Chevrolet fenders, and plastics until his retirement. He also studied mechanical engineering, taking night classes at Drexel University. Blank gave birth to two sons, Robert G. and John C. Moyer, who were born in 1947 and 1953. She died on August 15, 1965; her husband died on February 27, 1998.

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