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Gordon, Mary Jane White
| Last Name: | Gordon |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Mary Jane White |
| Dates: |
*8.4.1898 (Date of Birth)
*29.12.1920 (Date of Marriage)
*23.3.1982 (Date of Death)
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| Biography/History: | Mary Jane White was born in April 1898 in Wallace, Idaho, to Henry (“Harry”) White (1859-1919) and Maude Fox White (1872-1936). Mary’s only sibling, John (“Jack”) Campbell White (1899-1959), was born in September of the following year. Their father Harry managed the Wallace wholesale grocery company, White & Bender; he also sold mining supplies and was a founder and president of the First National Bank of Wallace. Their mother Maude had come to Wallace from Canton Ohio, around 1891 to live with her first cousin Grace Fox Campbell, husband Amasa, and baby Helen (b.1892). Maude and Harry married in 1897. The Whites and Campbells lived across the street from each other at Cedar and 3rd Street in Wallace until the Campbells moved to Spokane in 1898; the families remained very close, sharing visits, holidays and travel. Mary wrote a colorful written reminiscence of her Wallace childhood, including the family’s escape from the 1910 fire, and noted that she and Jack finished 8th grade in the Wallace public school. They likely attended school in Spokane after that; Jack’s 1918 WWI draft registration listed the Campbell home at 2316 W First Ave, Spokane as his permanent residence. At age 19, Mary was maid of honor at Helen Campbell’s June 27, 1917 marriage to William W. Powell; Harry White walked Helen to the alter (Helen’s father Amasa had died in 1912), and Jack was an usher. After Harry White died in 1919, Jack returned to Wallace to run the White & Bender Company. On December 29, 1920, in a ceremony similar to Helen Campbell’s, Mary married Ralph Semmes Gordon (1895-1974) at the Campbell’s home; a Davenport Hotel reception followed. Ralph’s father Burgess L. Gordon owned a Spokane wholesale grocery/produce firm; his mother Raphaelita, active in local art and history associations, worked with Helen Campbell Powell in 1924 to transfer the Campbell home into the Grace Campbell Memorial Museum. In addition, the Burgess Gordons donated their 7th Avenue home “Undercliff” to the Catholic Church in 1929 for Marycliff High School. Mary’s brother, Jack, married Esther Jean Smith; they remained in Wallace at least through WWI, and raised 2 children, John Campbell White, Jr. and Sara Jean (married Nick Ifft). Jack served in WWII, and was discharged as a Lieut. Col. He died in March 1959. Mary and Ralph Gordon lived in Spokane and Seattle before settling in Mill Valley, CA by 1940; there Ralph eventually retired as the Ford Motor Company’s West Coast public relations director. They had a daughter Mary Virginia born October 6, 1922 in Spokane (married Michael Mellor, 1952) and a son, Ralph Semmes Gordon, Jr. (born 1926). Mary White Gordon died in March 1982. |
| Related Participants: | |
| Related Objects: |
3513.1 (Dress, Wedding, Mary White Gordon's Wedding Dress, 1920)
3513.7 (Wedding Objects, Wedding Decorations, December 29, 1920)
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