Catalina OS 10.15 and archived Word/AppleWorks files

The free, 64-bit LibreOffice is capable of opening ClarisWorks 5/AppleWorks 6 documents, with acceptable formatting — provided the documents are not an amalgam of multiple tool data. LO opened a Word 6 document of mine from 1997, and supports opening ancient Word, Mac Word, and MS Works documents, among a plethora more. Not clear if OpenOffice has added support for Claris/AppleWorks documents.

LibreOffice is an MS Office superset, and installs everything into one application folder in /Applications.

I think you're looking at the same problem I have. One solution is to keep an old computer for the express purpose of maintaining the old files and applications. I've done this for several years and keeping several old computers up and running (recharging their batteries) is a bit of a pain, but not as bad as loosing the files or capabilities (access to vintage applications and hardware). I'm frankly surprised you've been able to hang on this long. This goes back to the days of Word 3.1.

Explore getting an external hard drive where you can install an earlier operating system and those old files. Boot from your computer to access them. If you need to print something then probably an older printer and drivers will be needed too. This is the direction I'm exploring but haven't done it yet as all those old computers I have still work okay, but I'm investigating that alternative. You can see my earlier thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250996964

First, Catalina is a 64 bit only OS. That means that older 32 bit apps will not function any longer. Therefore I assume that the only way to open a Claris Works file is the way you did it, by "recovering Text". Naturally, you will have lost any formatting, etc. I suspect that the Text app might also open those old files. As far as I know, Word will open only Word files. Can another app such as Open Office or Libre Office open those files? I doubt it but you could try and see.