Claire Phillips

Claire Maybelle Snyder (December 2, 1907 – May 22, 1960), also known as Clara Fuentes, Clara Phillips, Dorothy Fuentes as well as High Pockets, was an American spy, entertainer, club owner, and writer most noted for her exploits in the Japanese-occupied Philippines. She was portrayed by Ann Dvorak in the 1951 movie I Was an American Spy. She was also the author of Manila Espionage, a book about her wartime experiences. In 1951, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom.

Many of Phillips' statements and claims about spying were later determined to be "without foundation," although in 1957 she was awarded $1,349.21 by the United States Court of Claims in compensation for assistance she had provided to American prisoners of war and Filipino resistance movements.

Early years Claire Maybelle Snyder was born on December 2, 1907, in Michigan to Jesse Edgar Snyder, a marine engineer, and his wife Mable. Claire's family moved to Portland, Oregon, when she was a young child. She attended Franklin High School in Portland before running away to join a traveling circus. Some accounts give her birth name as Mabel Clara Dela Taste.

Pre-war In the 1930s, she worked in night clubs in the northwest U.S. and later joined a musical stock company that toured east Asia including Hong Kong and Manila. While on tour in the Philippines, she met Filipino sailor Manuel Fuentes at a night club where she was performing. They married and had a daughter, Dian (later Americanized to Diane) Claire. The marriage did not last long and soon the couple divorced. She briefly returned to Portland.

Before the beginning of the war, Claire, now Claire Fuentes, returned to the Philippines and was singing in a night club in Manila where she met her future second husband, Sgt. John V. Phillips of the 31st Infantry Regiment. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the couple retreated with the army away from Manila. On December 24, 1941, they were married in the jungle. though she did not learn this until later. After the surrender of the American forces in the Philippines on April 9, 1942, she was persuaded by an American soldier turned insurgent named Cpl. John Boone (also from the 31st Infantry) to help the resistance.

Working with a young Filipino dancer named Fely Corcuera, Phillips arranged forged papers and created a new identity for herself as a Philippine-born Italian dancer named Dorothy Clara Fuentes. Together the two women established a cabaret titled "Club Tsubaki", a gentleman's club that would quickly become popular with Japanese officers in Manila. Using the cabaret as a cover, Phillips was a member of the so-called "Miss U spy ring" that obtained information from the Japanese officers who patronized the club. A subsequent 1957 court ruling found that "many" of her "statements and claims were later found to be without foundation", but nevertheless awarded her $1,349.21 for the assistance she furnished to American prisoners of war and Filipino guerrillas.

Upon the recommendation of General Douglas MacArthur, she received the Medal of Freedom in 1951. She is honored at the Oregon World War II Memorial with a memorial plaque.

Claire Phillips died of meningitis in 1960 at the age of 52.