Clara boarded Titanic with her husband, Charles Melville Hays and her maid Anne Perreault. They were also accompanied by their daughter Orian Davidson, and son in law, Thornton Davidson. They were travelling in first class as guests of White Star Line President J. Bruce Ismay.

Clara and her daughter escaped on lifeboat 3, their husbands both perished. After the disaster when asked of she would sue White Star Line she responded "When one is a guest, one does not sue one's host."

After the disaster, Clara spent more time at her summer home in Cushing Island, Maine, USA than her home in Montreal. She died in 1955 and was buried alongside her husband in the Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal.