|
a.
|
Continued: Babe Grey was born in the Florence Crittenton home, Chicago Illinois. Having been born with a cleft palate and harelip she was not expected to live so no name was placed on her birth certificate. Nurses fed her with eyedroppers to keep her alive She went home to her mother and new stepfather several months later. Raised as Hylma Caroline Woolcott she lived in Dundee, Elgin, and Chicago. She was constantly having trouble with choking and remembers her dad turning her upside down to free something caught in her throat. For a while they had a cafe and lived in an old dance hall upstairs where they could roller skate inside in the winter on the wooden floor. One time her brother Cal fell in the river and a doctor saved him. Hylma stayed with various relatives while growing up she never really knew why. When their mother died they stayed with their Aunt Kathlyn Hopp for a while until Fred Woolcott couldn't afford the grocery bill the Hopp's ran up on his credit. She was placed in the Methodist Deaconess Orphanage in Lake Bluff Illinois along with her 1/2 sister and 3 1/2 brothers. Fred Woolcott remarried to Cecil's best friend Edith Timm who did not like children. So they remained in the orphanage and later went to Park Ridge School for girls and Glenwood School for boys. Once a truck hit her and broke both legs. She had many operations on her face and after the last one her sister was sent to keep her company and got mad and hit her with a National Geographic magazine and flattened the left side of her nose. She never forgave her although she did write to her over the years. She worked for room and board for several families taking care of the children and cleaning house. In 1936 the Chicago Worlds Fair was a milestone for she was the one who took visiting relatives and friends to see it so she got to spend a lot of time there. She had a camera and use to go to downtown Chicago from Aunt Rhoda's house and wander around taking pictures. About this time she sent for her birth certificate, and received an answer that there was no one by the name of Hylma Caroline Woolcott. She went to her dad and he told her to send for it under the name Babe Grey. When she got it, the fathers name was Lloyd Grey, which her step dad said, was false and that her real father's name was James Bennett. Cal her brother states that she was extremely mad about not being told all of this from the start. Somewhere she got a picture of him and remembered seeing him but did not know who he was at the time. She found out that he was last known to be living in Red Wing Minnesota. Hylma left home and hitch hiked across the US to California. She worked washing dishes and cleaning for people to earn enough money to go from town to town. She cut her hair off and dressed as a boy. And she would only get rides with truck drivers who mostly only wanted someone to keep them awake. Once in the west she couldn't get a ride and started walking along a deserted ridge. A state policeman stopped and told her to get in she asked "Why?" and he said "Do you see that wolf following you along that other ridge?" she got in and he took her to the next town. When she arrived in Los Angeles she got sick and Frankie Patino found her unconscious and took her home to his mother who nursed her back to health. Due to her haircut and clothes they called her Tommie. Frankie became a very special friend to her and his parents tried to break them up by sending him away for a while. After hitchhiking back to Chicago she packed her trunk she came back to Los Angeles and never returned. While he was gone she met Frank Herrera and got pregnant. When her daughter was ready to be born she went to the Florence Crittenton Home in Los Angeles. When Chris was 7 months old she gave her to her father and went to the hospital for several months where they applied sulfa which left her sterile. A friend talked her into going fruit picking up central California, Oregon and Washington. Got Chris back when she was 3. She had to learn Spanish to talk to her. She would telephone her friend, who she met in Dec. 1938. Andy Patino (no relation to Frankie) to interpret for her. During the war her brothers came and visited her several times as did her stepfather once. She took Chris on the train to San Diego to visit Bud once. Frankie wrote, sent pictures and money all during the war to buy his parents a home of their own. When there was enough she purchased one and moved herself and daughter into the back added on room, with the rest of the family. After the war Frankie and Tommie studied to become finger print experts but she never got a job in it. He wanted her to marry him but she refused because she could not have any more children and felt he needed his own. He later married Helen and on March 16, 1947 they had a son Charles Franklin Patino. She moved to Hollywood in 1948 where she worked as a maid at the Hollywood Studio Club for a year and lived next door at the woman's USO club. Saw a lot of stars and starlets there. Met Saul but he turned out to be married so they broke up. But not before they spent a month out in Apple Valley on a dude ranch owned by a black couple named Murray. She had no work when she came back to Los Angeles so she placed Chris in an orphanage until she got back on her feet. Lived on Whittier Bl. for a while in a made over garage behind a beauty shop where she worked. Then moved back to Hollywood where she worked in the Taft building, Sunset Towers and KHJ radio studio as a janitor at night. The employment office tested her and got her a job as a helper at Faith Plating shop. Later she worked for a plastics shop named Blisscraft. Then a small machine shop American Miniature Gun & Cartridge Co. where she made miniature guns one of which is in the Roy Rodgers Museum. She met Bill and Marie McAlister who introduced her to Gus Sanford from Fresno whom she married in 1951. They moved to Santa Monica then to Topanga Canyon in 1953 where they bought their first home for $2500 and payments of $25 a month. They owned a total of 4 homes, 3 in Topanga and 1 in Lake Isabella, and a lot in Apple Valley. Babe worked as a housemaid, housekeeper, janitor and a helper Faith plating shop, and assembler in at Blisscraft a plastic factory, Coastwise Electronics in the machine shop, as a structure mechanic at Douglas Aircraft. Then she returned to cleaning houses. She worked for Dr. Mower for dental work, Dr. Pinder podiatrist, the Sextons artists, The mother of Ralph Helfer of Africa USA, Howard Duff & Ida Lapino, Charles Laughton & Elsa Lanchester, Lee Marvin, Norman G. Dyrenhrenfurth, leader of the Mt. Everest expedition, and last Robert J. Franks developer of South Bay Clubs in the late 60's. After Gus's retirement they moved to Lake Isabella where she worked cleaning houses for welfare stay-at-homes, and for Ed Saba in his nursery for several years with whom Gus and Babe went on vacations with until she got high blood pressure and Gus went into the nursing home. Babe had several small strokes and had to have surgery for blocked arteries after which she had a bad stroke that paralyzed her left side. She was never the same again. After several years in a nursing home she died. Over the years she read many types of books and magazines, listened to ham radio and kept track of call signs, loved crossword puzzles, played piano by ear, followed the war with an atlas, and enjoyed going to museums, missions, zoos and parks. These are the places and address where she lived over the years. April 5, 1919 Algonguin, McHenry Co. Illinois January 17-19, 1920. Water St. East Dundee Village December 1, 1920 Dundee, Kane Co. Illinois. Had restaurant on River & Main March 14, 1922 Plato Center, Kane Co. Illinois September 9, 1924 Chicago Cook Co. Illinois E 43ed St & S Michigan Ave Chicago Cook Co. Illinois in a 3 story Brownstone with wrought iron picket fence. Lived over the pool hall later Feb 8 1929 201 Van Buren, East Dundee, Illinois April 11, 1930 Census 611 Evanston Ave. Lake Bluff Village, Lake Co., Illinois June 16, 1933 moved to Chicago at Aunt Rhoda's 9005 S. Claremont Ave Chicago, Illinois 1936 room and board at the Smart home and the Hill home June 20, 1937 Hitch-hiked to Los Angeles from Chicago July 11, 1937 20th birthday in Popular Bluff Missouri July 30, 1937 arrived LA April 11, 1938 went to Ojai July 30, 1938 back to LA Oct. 23, 1938 had daughter Eva Christine Grey Spring of 1939 LA County General Hospital surgery 1940 spring and summer worked harvest LA to Seattle Jan 25, 1941 Dr. Mower Feb.9, 1943 McKesson Robbins Inc. drug wholesale Sept. 1945 to May 1946 Room and Board at Patinos April 7, 1946 Hollywood Studio Club
Addresses 1940 116 S Hope St. 1940 2227 1/2 E 2d St. LA 1941 562 S. Chicago St. LA 1942 609 Echandia St. LA Calif. 1942 131 S. Boyle Ave. LA 1945 2751 Folsom St. LA 33 1946 Figueroa St. LA 1946 1215 Lodi Pl. Hollywood 38 1947 3465 Whittier Bl. LA 33 1947 1050 Orange Grove Ave. Hollywood 1948 7820 1/2 Santa Monica Bl. Hollywood 1st phone Gl7168 1951 8076 Melrose Ave. Hollywood 1952 143 Hollister Ave. Santa Monica 1953 2357 Ocean Park Bl. Santa Monica 1953 19885 Inspiration Trail Topanga phone 3794 1956 1208 Fernwood Pacific Drive Topanga 1957 19885 Inspiration Trail Topanga Calif. 455-1979 3705 Inglewood Bl. Los Angeles Calif. 90066 213-391-4637 16133 Sherman Way Van Nuys Calif. 91406 213-789-5197 1973 2525 Flower St. Lake Isabella Calif. 93540 last phone 619-379-8075 Hilltop Convalescent Hosp. Bakersfield Calif. Miraloma Convalescent Hosp. Lancaster Calif. 37911 28 Th. St. E. Palmdale Calif. 6705 West Ave. M Quartz Hill, California Mayflower Gardens Convalescent Hosp. Lancaster Calif.
Babe Grey was born in the Florence Crittenton home, Chicago Illinois. Having been born with a cleft palate and harelip she was not expected to live so no name was placed on her birth certificate. Nurses fed her with eyedroppers to keep her alive She went home to her mother and new stepfather several months later. Raised as Hylma Caroline Woolcott she lived in Dundee, Elgin, and Chicago. She was constantly having trouble with choking and remembers her dad turning her upside down to free something caught in her throat. For a while they had a cafe and lived in an old dance hall upstairs where they could roller skate inside in the winter on the wooden floor. One time her brother Cal fell in the river and a doctor saved him. Hylma stayed with various relatives while growing up she never really knew why. When their mother died they stayed with their Aunt Kathlyn Hopp for a while until Fred Woolcott couldn't afford the grocery bill the Hopp's ran up on his credit. She was placed in the Methodist Deaconess Orphanage in Lake Bluff Illinois along with her 1/2 sister and 3 1/2 brothers. Fred Woolcott remarried to Cecil's best friend Edith Timm who did not like children. So they remained in the orphanage and later went to Park Ridge School for girls and Glenwood School for boys. Once a truck hit her and broke both legs. She had many operations on her face and after the last one her sister was sent to keep her company and got mad and hit her with a National Geographic magazine and flattened the left side of her nose. She never forgave her although she did write to her over the years. She worked for room and board for several families taking care of the children and cleaning house. In 1936 the Chicago Worlds Fair was a milestone for she was the one who took visiting relatives and friends to see it so she got to spend a lot of time there. She had a camera and use to go to downtown Chicago from Aunt Rhoda's house and wander around taking pictures. About this time she sent for her birth certificate, and received an answer that there was no one by the name of Hylma Caroline Woolcott. She went to her dad and he told her to send for it under the name Babe Grey. When she got it, the fathers name was Lloyd Grey, which her step dad said, was false and that her real father's name was James Bennett. Cal her brother states that she was extremely mad about not being told all of this from the start. Somewhere she got a picture of him and remembered seeing him but did not know who he was at the time. She found out that he was last known to be living in Red Wing Minnesota. Hylma left home and hitch hiked across the US to California. She worked washing dishes and cleaning for people to earn enough money to go from town to town. She cut her hair off and dressed as a boy. And she would only get rides with truck drivers who mostly only wanted someone to keep them awake. Once in the west she couldn't get a ride and started walking along a deserted ridge. A state policeman stopped and told her to get in she asked "Why?" and he said "Do you see that wolf following you along that other ridge?" she got in and he took her to the next town. When she arrived in Los Angeles she got sick and Frankie Patino found her unconscious and took her home to his mother who nursed her back to health. Due to her haircut and clothes they called her Tommie. Frankie became a very special friend to her and his parents tried to break them up by sending him away for a while. After hitchhiking back to Chicago she packed her trunk she came back to Los Angeles and never returned. While he was gone she met Frank Herrera and got pregnant. When her daughter was ready to be born she went to the Florence Crittenton Home in Los Angeles. When Chris was 7 months old she gave her to her father and went to the hospital for several months where they applied sulfa which left her sterile. A friend talked her into going fruit picking up central California, Oregon and Washington. Got Chris back when she was 3. She had to learn Spanish to talk to her. She would telephone her friend, who she met in Dec. 1938. Andy Patino (no relation to Frankie) to interpret for her. During the war her brothers came and visited her several times as did her stepfather once. She took Chris on the train to San Diego to visit Bud once. Frankie wrote, sent pictures and money all during the war to buy his parents a home of their own. When there was enough she purchased one and moved herself and daughter into the back added on room, with the rest of the family. After the war Frankie and Tommie studied to become finger print experts but she never got a job in it. He wanted her to marry him but she refused because she could not have any more children and felt he needed his own. He later married Helen and on March 16, 1947 they had a son Charles Franklin Patino. She worked for McKesson and Robbins Drug Company downtown at one time. She moved to Hollywood in 1948 where she worked as a maid at the Hollywood Studio Club for a year and lived next door at the woman's USO club. Saw a lot of stars and starlets there. Met Saul but he turned out to be married so they broke up. But not before they spent a month out in Apple Valley on a dude ranch owned by a black couple named Murray. She had no work when she came back to Los Angeles so she placed Chris in an orphanage until she got back on her feet. Lived on Whittier Bl. for a while in a made over garage behind a beauty shop where she worked. Then moved back to Hollywood where she worked in the Taft building, Sunset Towers and KHJ radio studio as a janitor at night. The employment office tested her and got her a job as a helper at Faith Plating shop. Later she worked for a plastics shop named Blisscraft. Then a small machine shop American Miniature Gun & Cartridge Co. where she made miniature guns one of which is in the Roy Rodgers Museum. She met Bill and Marie McAlister who introduced her to Gus Sanford from Fresno whom she married in 1951. They moved to Santa Monica then to Topanga Canyon in 1953 where they bought their first home for $2500 and payments of $25 a month. They owned a total of 4 homes, 3 in Topanga and 1 in Lake Isabella, and a lot in Apple Valley. Babe worked as a housemaid, housekeeper, janitor and a helper Faith plating shop, and assembler in at Blisscraft a plastic factory, Coastwise Electronics in the machine shop, as a structure mechanic at Douglas Aircraft. Then she returned to cleaning houses. She worked for Dr. Mower for dental work, Dr. Pinder podiatrist, the Sextons artists, The mother of Ralph Helfer of Africa USA, Howard Duff & Ida Lapino, Charles Laughton & Elsa Lanchester, Lee Marvin, Norman G. Dyrenhrenfurth, leader of the Mt. Everest expedition, and last Robert J. Franks developer of South Bay Clubs in the late 60's. After Gus's retirement they moved to Lake Isabella where she worked cleaning houses for welfare stay-at-homes, and for Ed Saba in his nursery for several years with whom Gus and Babe went on vacations with until she got high blood pressure and Gus went into the nursing home. Babe had several small strokes and had to have surgery for blocked arteries after which she had a bad stroke that paralyzed her left side. She was never the same again. After several years in a nursing home she died. Over the years she read many types of books and magazines, listened to ham radio and kept track of call signs, loved crossword puzzles, played piano by ear, followed the war with an atlas, and enjoyed going to museums, missions, zoos and parks. These are the places and address where she lived over the years. April 5, 1919 Algonguin, McHenry Co. Illinois January 17-19, 1920. Water St. East Dundee Village December 1, 1920 Dundee, Kane Co. Illinois. Had restaurant on River & Main March 14, 1922 Plato Center, Kane Co. Illinois September 9, 1924 Chicago Cook Co. Illinois E 43ed St & S Michigan Ave Chicago Cook Co. Illinois in a 3 story Brownstone with wrought iron picket fence. Lived over the pool hall later Feb 8 1929 201 Van Buren, East Dundee, Illinois April 11, 1930 Census 611 Evanston Ave. Lake Bluff Village, Lake Co., Illinois June 16, 1933 moved to Chicago at Aunt Rhoda's 9005 S. Claremont Ave Chicago, Illinois 1936 room and board at the Smart home and the Hill home June 20, 1937 Hitch-hiked to Los Angeles from Chicago July 11, 1937 20th birthday in Popular Bluff Missouri July 30, 1937 arrived LA April 11, 1938 went to Ojai July 30, 1938 back to LA Oct. 23, 1938 had daughter Eva Christine Grey Spring of 1939 LA County General Hospital surgery 1940 spring and summer worked harvest LA to Seattle Jan 25, 1941 Dr. Mower Feb.9, 1943 McKesson Robbins Inc. drug wholesale Sept. 1945 to May 1946 Room and Board at Patinos April 7, 1946 Hollywood Studio Club
Addresses 1940 116 S Hope St. 1940 2227 1/2 E 2d St. LA 1941 562 S. Chicago St. LA 1942 609 Echandia St. LA Calif. 1942 131 S. Boyle Ave. LA 1945 2751 Folsom St. LA 33 1946 Figueroa St. LA 1946 1215 Lodi Pl. Hollywood 38 1947 3465 Whittier Bl. LA 33 1947 1050 Orange Grove Ave. Hollywood 1948 7820 1/2 Santa Monica Bl. Hollywood 1st phone Gl7168 1951 8076 Melrose Ave. Hollywood 1952 143 Hollister Ave. Santa Monica 1953 2357 Ocean Park Bl. Santa Monica 1953 19885 Inspiration Trail Topanga phone 3794 1956 1208 Fernwood Pacific Drive Topanga 1957 19885 Inspiration Trail Topanga Calif. 455-1979 3705 Inglewood Bl. Los Angeles Calif. 90066 213-391-4637 16133 Sherman Way Van Nuys Calif. 91406 213-789-5197 1973 2525 Flower St. Lake Isabella Calif. 93540 last phone 619-379-8075 Hilltop Convalescent Hosp. Bakersfield Calif. Miraloma Convalescent Hosp. Lancaster Calif. 37911 28 Th. St. E. Palmdale Calif. 6705 West Ave. M Quartz Hill, California Mayflower Gardens Convalescent Hosp. Lancaster Calif.
|
