Ophelia Clemens

Ophelia Clemens (b 1872) was an American journalist. She was the daughter of Samuel Clemens. During the Great War and the interwar occupation of Canada, she wrote several stories unflattering to George Custer. While reporting on Custer, she met Abner Dowling.

During the Second Great War, Clemens continued her work despite being over seventy years old. She uncovered large unexplained War Department expenditures in the 1942 Federal budget and began to investigate. She was dissuaded from doing so by Franklin D Roosevelt and Flora Hamburger, who knew what she did not: that the expenditures were for the uranium bomb project.

Clemens also covered her old friend Abner Dowling's advance in western Texas. She and Dowling, in addition to enjoying working with one another, had a friendship wrought with sexual tension, much to the disgust of younger, fitter observers.

Clemens was horrified at the nature of Camp Determination and promised Dowling that she would publicize it until the Army was forced to give him all the resources he needed to shut it down as quickly as possible. Dowling asked her not to, citing his belief that it was more important that Irving Morrell receive priority in resource allocation.