Clara Stover

Russell Stover was hired by a candy company in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Some years later the couple returned to the United States, where Russell worked for confectioners, in Des Moines, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois, during the balance of the 1910s.^{[citation needed]}

Iowa schoolteacher Christian Nelson had the idea of enrobing a block of vanilla ice cream with melted chocolate. He partnered with Russell Stover, then studying chemistry at the University of Iowa, to develop a workable process of doing so without melting the ice cream. In 1921 a patent was granted, allowing Nelson's concept to be mass produced. At a dinner party, Clara suggested calling the novelty an "Eskimo Pie", which became a national sensation. Russell was soon offered licensing agreements, which he accepted, and buyout offers into the millions of dollars, which he refused; instead, he focused on suing imitators. Ultimately he waited too long, imitators thrived, the initial craze wore down, and licensed sales plummeted into the mere thousands of dollars.^[1][2]

The Stovers relocated to Denver, Colorado, and used their meager earnings to create their own confectionery company, "Mrs. Stover's Bungalow Candies". With success came factories in Denver and Kansas City, Missouri. By 1932, all operations were relocated to Kansas City, sales having increased from 20,000 to 11 million pounds.^{[citation needed]} In 1943, the company was renamed "Russell Stover Candies".^[3]

In 1954, Russell Stover died. At the time there were 40 company-owned stores and their candy was sold in 2,000 pharmacies and department stores nationwide^[4].^{[citation needed]} Clara took over and ran the business until 1960. That year, Louis Ward, a box-maker who had been supplying packaging materials to the company, purchased a controlling interest and took the business public.^[3]

This section needs expansion. You can help by expanding it. (January 2023)

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Clara Stover died in Kansas City in 1975, where she had lived with her husband. Her cremated remains are interred with those of her husband and daughter at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City.