Elizabeth Rebecca Hanneford was born July, 1893, the second child of Ned and Elizabeth. Her father had her name registered as Kate Amelia, after his sister, but Elizabeth made him change it. She wanted her named after herself and her mother. However, Ned got to give her the nickname that everyone knew her as - Lizzie. She made her first appearance in public at the age of ten in a Cinderella show for Algy's circus.
     The first recorded information about Lizzie was in connection to the court proceedings surrounding the Scott Circus. Her father had taken over the show (see Ned and Elizabeth for details) and Lizzie was put in charge. When the Scott family repossesed the show, Lizzie was locked out of her own trailer, that acted as office, and she was forced to return to her family's main show. It was a embarrasing and difficult time for Lizzie. Not long after that she came close to being killed by a lion. She was standing too close to the lion's cage when it reached out and grabbed her with both paws - pinning her to the cage. Fortunately her father was nearby and managed to pull her away before any serious damage was done. She did, however, have scars from the lion's claws for the rest of her life.
     Apart from being a beautiful young lady she was also very talented. She juggled, worked Roman ladders, walked a tight wire, balanced on rolling globes, and was an excellent rider. She was also a seamstress and maintained the show's costumes. In the family show she presented an act that consisted of an elephant, Winnipeg, and a white horse, Manitoba. She would ride in on the horse and work the elephant from it. The she would do a series of riding mounts on both animals. A photograph of the act was on the front page of Worlds Fair on January 3rd, 1914.
     Lizzie was an excellent addition to the family riding act. She was exceptionally atheletic and, with her attractive appearance and high spirits, did much to modernize their performance. At one point in the act she would vault up on a horse that Poodles was riding and do a two high with him. 
     When she came to the United States to work the Ringling show she was just twenty two years old; less than five feet tall with an olive skin and dark hair. Together, Lizzie and Poodles would dance both on and off horse back and was the perfect partner for the interplay between the two brothers. Her beauty and skill soon attracted the attention of aerialist Ernie Clarke - one half of the world famous flying trapeze act, The Clarkonians.
     The Clarkonians were the world's premier flying trapeze act and the first to do a two man "return" act (see circus Early History). The Clarkes, Ernie and Charles, were also of British origins and of an old circus family. John Clarke rode with Astley's show in the early 1800's. In 1825 he started his own circus that played English fairs. He had three sons - John (who took over the show after his father died), Alfred (who started his own show, the Powell and Clarke Circus; his son, John Frederick Clarke, became one of the world's greatest equestrians in circus history), and Charles Sr. Charles Sr. was considered to be of too delicate in health to work in the circus so he was apprenticed to the drury Lane Theatre. However, he returned to work with his brother Alfred's show, married, and had several children, including Ernie and Charles Jr. He created their trapeze act for them, and they achieved internation fame. At the time Ernie met Lizzy they were both working for the Ringling show. They married in 1920. 
    The Hanneford act left Ringling in 1919 but the Clarkonians remained with the show until 1926. Lizzie was not an aerialist so she stayed with the Hanneford riding act until her daughter, Elizabeth Laura Clarke (called little Ernie by her father's friend), was born. Then she joined her husband with the Ringling show. She returned to the Hanneford act for its appearance in The Circus Princess in 1927 and for the stage prologue of the Chaplin film, The Circus, in 1928 at Graumans Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, and both Lizzie and the Clarkes worked on and off with the Hanneford act until 1935 when Poodles, and his family, went into the stage production of Jumbo. 
     Many of the family members were often called by different names than they were born with and Lizzie and Ernie's daughter, Elizabeth, true to family tradition, aquired the name Ernestine. Somehow, because she was called Ernie by everyone, people outside of the family assumed that Ernie was short for Ernestine. Eventually, as she grew up, she gave in to public demand and billed herself as Ernestine Clarke.
     In 1936 Ernie, Lizzie, Percy Clarke (Ernie's younger brother), and Ernestine formed a new riding act called the Riding Clarkonians, with Lizzy acting her mothers part as ringmistress. they played all over until, in 1940, Ernie became ill. He died of a heart attack in January 1941 at the age of 64. They hired another flyer to work with Charles but then, with the outbreak of war, Charles and Percy took defense industy jobs and Lizzie, aged 48, decided to retire.
     Ernestine continued performing, however, and Lizzie traveled with her. She worked with her Uncle, Poodles, and was then hired to work with the Cristiani's riding act on the Ringling show. However, John Ringling North, president, was replaced by his cousin, Robert Ringling. As the Cristiani's were John Ringling North's act they left and took their horses. Ernestine was left with no act to perform but stayed to work in the production numbers. Then she met and joined Art Concello's flying act. When Concello bought Russel Brothers Circus, and left Ringling, he asked Ernestine to recreate the Clarkonian flying act for his show. She became an accomplished flyer and later returned to the Ringling show as principal rider and flyer in her own act in 1944.
     It was during that tour, in Hartford, Conneticut, that tragedy struck. The top caught fire and one hundred and sixty eight people died, another four hundred eighty seven were injured. The show limped back to Sarasota and put out a limited show for the rest of the season. Ernestine rejoined the show in 1945, and for part of 1946 when she met and married Parley Baer.
     Parley Baer is primarily an actor, though he presented a wild animal act in a local amusement park and acted as press agent for many circuses. After leaving Ringling they set up home in California. Parley continued his acting carer in radio, television, and movies. His best known roles were from 1955 to 1961 as Darby, the neighbor, in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and in 1962-63 as Mayor Stoner in The Andy Griffith Show. On radio he played the part of Chester on Gunsmoke from 1952-61. 
    They had two daughters, Kim Baer and Elizabeth Dale Baer. Both worked as circus performers. Parley continued his work with circus promotion till the late 70's. Lizzie quit performing in 1975. Lizzie moved in with her daughters family in California, but continued to visit her brothers. In 1950, while visiting George and his family, her nephews and niece dared her to ride a horse. She kicked off her shoes, vaulted up on the horse, and did several standing trips around the ring. Everyone was surprised, but Lizzie wasn't. "And, why not," she said. "Hadn't I been riding for thirty seven years?" Lizzie died on December 8th, 1975. She's buried in California.