October 16, 1917

'Claire Kral Necker was born Claire Kral Nemec on 16 October 1917. In 1939 she married Walter L. Necker, who was then completing a BS in zoology at the University of Chicago. She and Walter shared interests in science and bibliography. Walter worked with a variety of organizations as, at various times, scientist, librarian, curator and rare books cataloger. Claire earned Master's degrees in Zoology and Chemistry (when and where is not documented, though it was sometime before 1968), and after World War II she and Walter started Aardvark Books, a mail-order antiquarian book business. Claire and Walter divorced in 1968, and she found work at a local library. Claire had for some time pursued, without much success, a career as a free-lance writer, but in 1969 she published her first book, Cats and Dogs (A. S. Barnes). Necker's other works include The Natural History of Cats (Delta, 1970), Supernatural Cats; An Anthology (Doubleday, 1972), Four Centuries of Cat Books (Scarecrow Press, 1972), and The Cat's Got Our Tongue (Scarecrow Press, 1973). She died 19 March 2010 in Pawling, New York.'

This the description accompanying her archives at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. There is something sad about the story as portrayed above. She was a great writer and researcher. And may not have gotten the recognition her work deserves.