(Photo courtesy of www.legacy.com)

Suzanne Phillips Clauser

(August 25, 1929 – April 11, 2016)

Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Clauser earned her college degree in 1951 from Indiana University for literature. After marrying Charles Clauser in 1951, she soon moved to different countries as his wife, including Burma and Rangoon.

The Clausers returned to the states when her husband began work at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The family settled in Yellow Springs, and Clauser began writing. Her first book was based on their overseas travel and she soon took a writing class taught by a visiting professor at Antioch College, Rod Serling. With his connections to Hollywood, he took one of her assignments to producers of Bonanza. She wrote 11 episodes for the popular television program. She was the only regular writer to be female.

During the 1970s and 1980s, she continued to be a housewife and write screenplays. She had a string of popular made-for-television movies, mostly in the Western genre. Her novel, A Girl Named Sooner, was made into a movie and she was nominated for a Writers Guild Award. Her 1978 adaptation of Little Women premiered on NBC, and her script for The Pride of Jesse Hallam won an award for best original screenplay in 1981. In 1987, she won a Golden Gate Award for best children’s program for Christmas Snow.

Clauser was an active citizen of Yellow Springs. She was part of the Yellow Springs writer’s group, which she joined in 1962. She retired from her career in the 1990s.  She passed away in Yellow Springs on April 11, 2016. She is buried at Glen Forest Cemetery, Yellow Springs, Ohio, in the Natural Burial Section.  

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Bibliography

• A Girl Named Sooner (1972)
• East of Mandalay: A Novel (2000)

Filmography

• Bonanza (1964-1971)
• Pioneer Woman (1973)
• A Girl Named Sooner (1975)
• Little Women (television 1978)
• The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1981)
• Christmas Snow (1986)

For More Information

Suzanne P. Clauser - Wikipedia
Suzanne P. Clauser - Ohio Link Finding Aid
Suzanne P. Clauser - Ohio Center For the Book

 

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