Gertrude Rose Dewey was born January 13, 1917 at 4 a.m. in Young’s Station, Delaware County, New York, the oldest of eight children. Her paternal grandmother, Harriet Dewey, acted as midwife. Despite her small size she assured me she was a healthy full term baby, weighing in at over eight pounds. Her dad and his cousin were both expecting kids, and whichever child came first the other had to buy the baby new shoes. In an early photograph, I see Gertie has the shoes on! At the same time, she got a four inch tall celluloid doll with a red satin dress. The night before her birth her father sat up making and painting a dark green hand sled for what he thought was to be a baby boy.

Gertie, her mother, and sister

          "When I was three years old my folks lived up on South Hill out of East Guilford and Mom would take a special road horse on the buggy and go to Sidney for groceries. One day Dad hitched the horse to the buggy and Mom wanted to take me with her. There weren’t many cars or trucks in those days and we were coming back from Sidney on the old Kelly Road. We came to a little knoll and a big Larrabee truck carrying milk cans was behind us. He raced his motor to shift and it scared our horse and he started running fast. I could hardly stay in the buggy. We were near the barn coming down the hill, and something gave way. I was thrown about fifty to sixty feet."