Clara Ward (April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973) was an American artist who achieved great success, both artistic and commercial, in the 1940s and 1950s as leader of The Famous Ward Singers.

A gifted singer and arranger, Ward took the lead-switching style used by male gospel quartets to new heights, leaving room for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group while giving virtuouso singers such as the opportunity to step forward in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (among the first million-selling gospel hits), "" (which she wrote; one of the most famous songs in the Black gospel repertoire), and "Packin' Up".

Ward ranks among the greatest of gospel singers along with , , , and others.

Despite her career success, Ward's life was an unhappy one. Financial hardships caused her and her family to move 19 times before her adulthood. Sexually abused in childhood by a cousin and relentlessly driven as prime breadwinner by her mother throughout her life, Clara's life was one of constant work and little joy. According to her sister Willa, Gertrude Ward recognized Clara's exceptional musical ability when Clara was a child and controlled and manipulated her throughout her life. In her biography of Clara, Willa attests that Gertrude worked to prevent Clara from forming any romantic attachments. Although Clara eloped as a teenager (at age 17 in 1941), her mother forced her to tour and the strain caused the always frail Clara to have a miscarriage. Her marriage ended after only one year. Willa describes Clara as explaining her occasional lesbian encounters as the sexual expression likely to escape her mother's notice. Her only real happiness seems to have come from her longtime romance with (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the famous Detroit-based preacher and father of the legendary .