Clara is known for her many years as a surgical nurse at Ketchikan General Hospital, her service to her community, and devotion to her family and Catholic faith. She is noted for caring for innumerable people both through her nursing work, as well as later with customers at her restaurant, the Diaz Cafe.

Clara graduated from Brokenshire Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in the Philippines in 1957. Public health service work in the Philippines included working in a maternity clinic in Manila, and public nursing for six months in her home town of Davao. Sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph, she arrived in Ketchikan from the Philippines in 1958 at the age of 26 and immediately went to work as a registered nurse at the hospital on Bawden Street, retiring in 1978 to take over the Diaz Cafe.

Clara taught traditional Filipino dance classes, often out of the Cafe. Her students performed at community events to share Filipino culture and raise funds for the Filipino Community Club and Holy Name Catholic School. Her students continue to pass down traditional Filipino dances and culture with younger generations.