Gertrude Ward  and her fraternal twin Abby were born on November 24, 1891, in Tehran, Persia.  The twins had different eye colors...and personalities. Abby’s eyes were brown while Gertrude’s were blue.  When the twins were seven weeks old, their mother reported that Gertrude seemed “to have more temper than Abby and was more dainty in her ways.”  Gertrude was named for her father’s older sister, Gertrude Electa Ward DeWolfe.

 

When she was three, Gertrude traveled with the rest of her family from Persia to the United States, settling first in Ohio and then in Glendale, California.  She graduated from Glendale Union High School in 1911.  After completing her nursing training at Angelus Hospital in Los Angeles, she worked primarily in public health.  She often went above and beyond her duties to ensure that her patients received the care they needed. 

 

One needed only to look at her sketch book to confirm that Gertrude was an artist.  In retirement she enjoyed making and firing pottery.  Many family members possess ceramic plates and cups which Gertrude painted.  As her sister Irene worked on the family history volume widely known as “The Blue Book,”  Gertrude helped by painting the family crests which are found in that book.

 

Gertrude never married and lived with her parents until their deaths.  She was a devoted and generous daughter, sister and aunt.  After her father died in 1944, she moved to San Fernando to live with her sister Irene Ward Kennedy.  Gertrude died in 1962.