Clara Robertson

Clara Robertson Zent
Born
Clara Robertson

unknown 1857
Bolivar, Tennessee
Died1883(1883-00-00) (aged 25–26)
Arkansas
Resting placeElmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)
Occupation
  • Spiritual Medium
Known for
  • Discovering the ghost of "Pink Lizzie"
SpouseJohn Zent
Parents
  • JR Robertson
  • Mary Robertson

Clara Robertson Zent (1857 – 1883) was a 19th century clairvoyant and medium. Robertson came to public attention in 1871 when the account of the schoolgirl in Memphis, Tennessee who had seen a ghost became sensationalized in local and national papers.[1][2][3] The school, hurt in part by the scandal, closed in 1871.[1][4] Robertson went on to become a performing clairvoyant and medium in local theaters. She appeared on stage, and offered séances and mediumship services until she died, aged 25,[1] in 1883.

Early life and education

Clara Robertson was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee in 1857. She was the daughter of Joseph R. Robertson[4] and Mary Craig Robertson. Her father was a Methodist preacher and a lawyer.[4][5]

The family moved from Bolivar, Tennessee to DeSoto Street[5] in Memphis in 1868, when Clara was 11. She attended the Linden School for two years.[6]

In the fall of 1870, she started at the Brinkley Female College, a new private girls’ school in Memphis opened in 1868[1] on South Fifth Street.[5][7] Robertson came to public attention while a student at Brinkley Female College when she reported seeing a ghost in February 1871.[5] The ghostly apparition of a little girl of approximately eight appeared to Clara multiple times,[1] and was reported widely in the local press before becoming a national sensation.[1][5] Other girls also reported seeing the ghost.[1][4][5] The Daily Memphis Avalanche described the ghost as having "a sad expression" and wearing a "tattered dress of faded pink, which was partly covered in a green and slimy mould."[8][2] Accounts of the period say that the pink-clad apparition spoke to Clara and revealed its name as Lizzie Davie,[4] leading to the moniker “Pink Lizzie.”[6] Town folk thought the ghost was the daughter of Colonial Davie who had built the Brinkley mansion, which housed the school.[4][7]

Roberston refused to go back to school after seeing the ghost, and Brinkley Female College, hurt in part by the scandal, closed in 1871.[1][4][7] Robertson didn't continue her schooling but instead became a professional spiritual medium, with her father as a promoter and agent, from 1871-1876.

Career

In March 1871, weeks after the first ghostly sighting, the Memphis Public Ledger wrote that the Daily Memphis Avalanche's “ghost reporter”[9] declared Clara Robertson to be a “full-fledged writing medium and clairvoyant,” and that “she sees other spirits…with eyes closed while she is in a state of trance.”[9]

Robertson's father published a compilation of the story in May 1871 entitled The Brinkley Female College GHOST STORY: The Finding of The Mysterious Jar, its opening and contents. A Thrilling Narrative, Based Upon Facts.[1] He offered the pamphlets for sale from his office at 53 Union Street, and they were also carried by newsstands and book stores in the city, for 30¢ a piece. The pamphlet, and her onstage appearances,[10] led to her local and national notoriety as a spiritualist for a number of years.[1]

Robertson appeared on stage on 1 May 1871 at the Greenlaw Opera House in a trance state. Admission cost 75¢. Robertston also appeared on stage on 18 October 1871 at the Assembly Hall, with the "medium detective" Professor Von Vleck in an onstage battle, in a format popular in the 19th century, in which one performer attempted to debunk the supernatural claims of the other.[11][12]

Clara also offered séances[7] and mediumship services both independently and with a “natural clairvoyant and healer" Miss Crawford at No 2 Huling Street in downtown Memphis. These services were advertised in the Daily Memphis Avalanche.[13]

Personal life and death

In 1876, Robertson met and married[14] widower John Zent, a man of modest means and 33 years her senior. In 1877, the couple had a son, David. Her husband sold lumber and worked various odd jobs and the couple and their son shared a tenement in the Market Street Slums,[15] in Pinch District, Memphis.

Clara died in 1883 of consumption,[1] while visiting her father, in Wittsburg, Arkansas.[16][17] She was 25[1] or 26.[16] She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery with her husband, their son, and her husband’s first wife.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Platt, R. Eric; Holliman Parris, Hannah (11 February 2022). "A Ghostly Closure? The Strange History of Brinkley Female College, Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism, and the Terminal Effects of Sensationalist Journalism". Journal of Curriculum Studies Research. 4 (1): 58-75. doi:10.46303/jcsr.2022.6.
  2. ^ a b "Spiritual Phenomena: A Remarkable Ghost Story". Waukesha Plaindealer. Waukesha, Wisconsin. Memphis Daily Avalanche. 18 April 1871 [5 March 1871]. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "A Memphis Affair - Extraordinary Works". The New-Orleans Times. 16 April 1871. p. 3. Retrieved 18 December 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Sawyer, Susan (2013-06-04). "The Ghost of Brinkley Female College". Myths & Mysteries of Tennessee: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained. Guildford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press. pp. 55–65. ISBN 978-0-7627-9582-6.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Cunningham, Laura (2009). "Pink Lizzie, the Ghost of Brinkley Female College". Haunted Memphis. Haunted America. p. 1-8. ISBN 9781596297128.
  6. ^ a b Robertson, Joseph R. (1871). The Brinkley Female College ghost story [electronic resource] : the finding of the mysterious jar, its opening and contents ; a thrilling narrative, based upon facts (1 ed.). Memphis, Tennessee: C. Floyd & Co. p. 36.
  7. ^ a b c d Brown, Alan (2002). "Brinkley Female College". Haunted Places in the American South. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 197–202. ISBN 978-1-57806-477-9.
  8. ^ "Ghost Sighting at the Brinkley Female College". The Memphis Daily Avalanche. 21 February 1871.
  9. ^ a b "Brevities: Avalanche ghost reporter". Public Ledger. Memphis, TN. 17 March 1871. p. 3. Retrieved 18 December 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "(At the Inspirational and Religious Lecture)". The Public Ledger. Memphis, Tennessee. 1 May 1871. Retrieved 29 August 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "The Spiritualists". The Memphis Daily Appeal. 19 October 1871. Retrieved 17 Dec 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Amusements: Assembly Hall". Public Ledger. Memphis, Tennessee. 1871-10-18. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-12-17.
  13. ^ "The Clock Strikes Ten!!". The Daily Memphis Avalanche. 6 August 1872. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  14. ^ "Marriage record for John Zent and Clara Robertson". Family Search. Shelby, Tennessee, United States. 26 June 1876. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  15. ^ "Census Record 1880: John and Clara Zent". Family Search. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  16. ^ a b "Ledger Lines: The wife of Mr. John Zent". Public Ledger (Death notice). Memphis, Tennessee. 10 November 1883. Retrieved 29 August 2025 – via Newspapers.com. The wife of Mr. John Zent, formerly Miss Clara Robertson, died yesterday at Wittsburg, Arkansaw, [sic] where she was visiting her father.
  17. ^ "The Brinkley College Mystery". St Louis Globe. Memphis Daily Avalanche. p. 3 – via newspapers.com. The death of Mrs John Dent (née Clara Robertson), at the home of her father in Arkansas, Friday, revives the memory of certain spiritual wonders occurring in Memphis in the spring of 1871.... There was never any question as to her sincerity in the wonderful story she told.
  18. ^ "Elmwood Cemetery Burial Search". Elmwood Cemetery. Elmwood Cemetery Memphis.
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