Clara Hale, ‘Mother Hale,’ Was Born on This Day

Clara Hale, ‘Mother Hale,’ Was Born on This Day

On this day, Clara Hale, known as “Mother Hale,” was born Clara McBride in 1905 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Orphaned at 16, she finished high school, married, and later moved to New York. Widowed young, she supported her three children by working as a janitor while opening her home to care for children of working parents. At 65, her life’s work transformed when she began caring for drug-addicted babies, eventually nurturing dozens with th…