Gagi with Nana, 1920
FATHER: Claus Van Gerpen
(1849-1925)
MOTHER: Hilka Rodenbeck
(1850-1929)
MARRIED (I): Dale Ray Andre (1889-1950)
September 13, 1914 (Hartsburg, IL)
MARRIED (II): Laurel E. Jones ( -1955)
October 16, 1954
CHILDREN:
RUTH JEANETTE ANDRE (KNEPP) (1917-1996)
Bette Virginia Andre (Farmer) (1923-2009)
OCCUPATION: Fashion buyer for Montgomery Ward
Nana told me several times that Gagi's real first name was Hildreth, though I've never been able to find any indication of this either in records or other papers that survive. Either way, though, more often she was called by her nickname "Tudy", first by her parents and then by her husband Dale. Unfortunately, by the time I started getting interested in family history in the early 1980's, nobody still around knew or remembered how she got that nickname.
In 1906, at the age of 12, Gagi got to travel to Germany and meet her family over there as a birthday present. It was the only time that she would be able to go to Germany, and a trip that she would remember and recall happily for the rest of her life. She corresponded with our German family members after that, and sent them food after the end of the Second World War. But she lost contact with them not long after war's end.
Gagi's favorite author was Pearl S. Buck, who wrote predominately about characters in Asia. Consequently, she had a lifelong desire to travel to China, but unfortunately never made it there.
During the Great Depression, beggars often came to her back door asking for food. She never turned them down.
Read Gagi's obituary here.
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