Claudia Clara Robbins was born on 25 August 1877 in Grayson, Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, the youngest of nine children born to Benjamin Wells Robbins and Missouri Ann Mitchell. Claudia had 3 older brothers and 5 older sisters. She would live her entire life in Caldwell Parish. Claudia's father, Benjamin, who was a Confederate Soldier (Louisiana Infantry) in the Civil War, 1862 – 1865, died in 1877 when Claudia was only two years old.

Claudia met James Jeptha Stallings in Caldwell Parish. Both of them grew up in the small town of Grayson, LA (pop. ~200), and surely knew each other. Claudia was 17 and James was 21 years old when they were married on 12 August 1894. They would have eight children, six girls and two boys from 1895 – 1916, all born in Grayson, LA. Education was always a priority in the Stallings home. James and Claudia would read to their young children and encouraged all of them to read also. Many of James and Claudia's children (and grandchildren) would later become teachers in Louisiana high schools and colleges.

James and Claudia Stallings owned and ran the local general store in Grayson. In this store, they sold everything that people needed from food, goods, materials and even coffins. There were also a few rooms that boarders would rent in the general store. During the depression years, they were very kind to most people allowing them to buy food and goods on credit because they had no money.

In 1920, Claudia, at the age of 43, picked a pimple on her face and it became infected. The infection spread rapidly and within a few weeks of being ill, Claudia died suddenly on 10 February 1920 in Grayson. Antibiotics, had they been available, would have probably saved her life. When Claudia died suddenly in 1920, she left her husband James with several small children, the youngest at 4 years old. Claudia Robbins Stallings is buried in the Welcome Home Cemetery in Grayson, Louisiana.