A name that still carries light
When I look at the name Margot Yoder, I see more than a marriage record or a footnote beside a Hollywood actor. I see a woman born in 1907, shaped by a large Texas family, and remembered for work that moved between paint, portraiture, music, and the long afterglow of circus imagery. Her life reads like a narrow road that opened into a bright field. Some people leave behind noise. She left behind color.
Margot Yoder was born Margaret Catherine Yoder on 25 June 1907 in Van Alstyne, Grayson County, Texas. Later public references connect her to the names Margot Yoder Clark and Margot Yoder Clark Veres. That shifting name trail is part of her story. It shows a life that crossed family, marriage, art, and time itself. She died in Los Angeles on 17 March 1970, but her image has continued to surface in collector circles, archival captions, and family history threads like a lamp that never fully goes dark.
Family roots in Texas
I like Margot Yoder’s family because it humanizes her. The celebrity husband wasn’t her only connection. She came from a large family with various names, lifestyles, and strong parents.
Her dad was Dennis Percival Yoder (D. P.). Born 1879, died 1942. He heads the family that shaped Margot’s childhood. Records show him as anchor. I see him as part of the household’s sturdy, practical construction, shaping a family before the children appear.
Her mother was Pearl Fay Bertram Yoder, 1885–1975. Pearl was the matriarch of a large Yoder family in Texas and abroad. With a long-lived mother, the family saga spans virtually the whole 20th century. One household becomes a miniature historical map with such durability.
Margot also has many siblings. Hal Dennis Yoder, Fred Allen Yoder, Lyman James Yoder, Ruth Marie Yoder, later linked to von der Hoff and Ackers, Virginia Pearl Yoder Johnson, and Genevieve Yoder Pope are listed in public family trees. They form a big family photo with several frames and branches.
Ted Yoder is the brother with the close nickname. Hal Dennis Yoder and Fred Allen Yoder continue the early 20th century name tradition. Ruth Marie Yoder shows how a woman’s name can alter through marriage and life, while Lyman James Yoder provides a formal touch. Virginia Pearl Yoder Johnson and Genevieve Yoder Pope change the family’s surnames as the line grows. When I read those names in sequence, I do not just see a list. A household with volume, momentum, and memory.
Marriage and personal life
Margot Yoder’s personal life intersects with Hollywood, but not in a way that swallowed her whole. Her first known husband was George Waterman Fisher, and genealogical records place their marriage on 5 June 1934 in Los Angeles. That detail matters because it shows Margot already moving between Texas roots and California life by the mid-1930s.
Her better known marriage was to actor Dane Clark. Public references do not always agree on the exact year, but they consistently identify Margot as his wife. Some records place the marriage in 1941, while others suggest 1944. I treat that mismatch carefully, because family histories often keep the shape of a relationship even when the calendar blurs at the edges. What remains steady is the connection itself. She was Dane Clark’s spouse, and that bond became the best-known public marker of her personal life.
Available family notes indicate that Margot and Dane had no children. That absence is also part of the record, and it subtly redirects attention. Without descendants to carry the name forward in a direct line, her identity travels through art, archive, and memory instead.
The artist behind the name
Margot Yoder is notable because she was more than a wife. Lived as an artist. She is listed as a painter and sculptor in public sources. Another thread links her to music. As a former pianist, her image has a different feel. It implies discipline, timing, training, and touch. Piano players learn to shape sound and silence. Color and space are used similarly by painters.
She is known for clown art. That intricacy gives her art a strange, vivid emotional language. Clowns can be happy, sad, dramatic, and disturbing. Pulse masks. Her paintings are linked to circus performers Emmett Kelly, Lou Jacobs, and Paul Jung in collector listings and estate references. She also painted Dane Clark’s portrait, which fits. Her creativity may have alternated between the intimate and the performative, between her home and stage personas.
I imagine her working in her own color field. Clowns are more than subjects. These are symbols. They resemble a deck of cards with motion, laughter, and grief. That imagery lets an artist communicate more than words.
The family story in full view
What stays with me is the balance between public and private life. Margot Yoder came from a family with a strong parental line, many siblings, and a name that changed as marriage and time moved over it. She was daughter to D. P. Yoder and Pearl Fay Bertram Yoder. She was sister to a large group of Yoder children whose lives spread into new surnames and new households. She was wife first to George Waterman Fisher and later to Dane Clark. She was also an artist with her own hand, her own eye, and her own body of work.
When I put all of that together, the picture grows sharper. Margot was not a footnote. She was the hinge between a Texas family background and a California artistic life. She lived at the junction of kinship and creativity. Her story has the structure of a family tree, but also the shimmer of stage light. That combination gives it depth.
FAQ
Who was Margot Yoder?
Margot Yoder was the birth name of Margaret Catherine Yoder, later known as Margot Yoder Clark and Margot Yoder Clark Veres. She was born in 1907 in Texas and became known as an artist, especially as a painter associated with clown-themed work.
Who were Margot Yoder’s parents?
Her parents were Dennis Percival Yoder and Pearl Fay Bertram Yoder. They were the center of a large family that included several children and later generations with married surnames.
Who were Margot Yoder’s siblings?
Public family listings identify Theodore Oron Yoder, Hal Dennis Yoder, Fred Allen Yoder, Lyman James Yoder, Ruth Marie Yoder, Virginia Pearl Yoder Johnson, and Genevieve Yoder Pope. Together, they form a broad sibling group that helps explain the family landscape around Margot.
Was Margot Yoder married?
Yes. She was first married to George Waterman Fisher in 1934. She later married actor Dane Clark. The exact year of the second marriage varies across records, but the relationship itself is consistently noted.
Did Margot Yoder have children?
The public family material I reviewed indicates that Margot Yoder and Dane Clark had no children.
What was Margot Yoder known for professionally?
She was known as a painter, and some references also describe her as a sculptor and a former pianist. Her work is especially linked to clown paintings and portraits, which gave her art a lively, theatrical, and sometimes haunting quality.
When did Margot Yoder die?
Margot Yoder died in Los Angeles on 17 March 1970.
