Women’s history month does not mean only famous women. It means all women. All women have stories that are worthy of telling. Documenting and sharing stories is what we are all about here at Pixologie Digital Solutions. What women do you know that need to have their stories told? These stories are not meant to be obituaries but rather the fabric of their lives. The good, the bad, the struggles, and the success’!
I will start with Gertrude Ellen Wilcox Becker. Gertrude is my paternal grandmother. She was born in Wisconsin in 1911 to Louise Phillips Wilcox. Gertrude was the 5th child, and her mother was 25 years old. Her father Perry Wilcox, was 27. They lived with Perry’s father, Edwin Wilcox. Gertrude’s mother went on to have six more children and died when Gertrude was nine years old. Louise was 35 years old.
Soon after Gertrude’s mother died, all of the children were taken by social services and put into foster care as Perry was unable to care for all the children and work to support them. The children were put into various homes and lost touch with each other. They all longed for and missed their family. The children were put mainly on farms and put to work helping the host families. Some of them were legally adopted by their foster family, and others were not. Gertrude was not adopted and left their home. Gertrude can be found on the 1930 census, living with her father and his new family. Perry had remarried and had four additional children with his second wife.
The older siblings remembered their younger brothers and sisters and eventually went on a quest to find them all, and they reunited. They all kept in touch after finding each other.
Gertrude met and married LeRoy Clarence Becker. They were both 20. They got married by the Justice of the Peace, with family acting as witnesses. Gertrude worked to keep the home, and soon she started having children. She gave birth in 1931, 32, 33, 35, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 47. Three of her children did not live to see their first birthdays. On the 1930 census, LeRoy was a farm laborer, and 1940 he is listed as a truck driver. 1950 He was a ranch hand on a fox farm.
In 1951, Gertrude and LeRoy’s oldest child was married. It was a grand event for the whole family. Gertrude was also active in the church and ladies’ groups. She was helping to hostess fun events for the community. She tended to the family garden and the animals on the small family plot. At some point, the family home burned, and they moved into a home provided by the fox ranch business. In November of 1952, Gertrude died from a heart attack. Her obituary states that she suffered from heart failure for six years before her death. She was the grandmother to over 20 grandchildren and even more great-grandchildren. All of them wish they could have met her.
From stories, she was a strong woman that took care of her family!
Photo of Gertrude and LeRoy at their Daughter Donna’s wedding