Following Up on John Coleman's Children -- Gladys Mae Coleman

In my last post, I covered what I had learned so far about my great grandfather's brother John Coleman and his wife Sarah (Sadie.)  I've also discussed one of his grandsons -- Robert F. Kerley -- in an earlier post.  This time I want to cover John and Sadie's oldest child and Robert's mother, Gladys Mae Coleman.

Gladys married Frank Patrick Elliott at St. Anthony's Church in Oakland on February 3, 1917.  (In another one of those weird coincidences, my great great grandmother Mary Manning Mullane had a cousin named Lizzie Quinlivan who was a housekeeper for the priests at St. Anthony's in the 1890s.)  At some point, Frank and Gladys moved to Ohio where their oldest son John was born in 1919.  I haven't been able to find a direct record for Frank or Gladys in 1920, but at least Gladys was in California by August 1920 as that was when their younger son Robert was born.

Gladys and Frank divorced at some point, but I've not yet found a record of their divorce.  I do know it happened prior to 1924 when Gladys shows up living in Oakland with her mother and siblings and has returned to using her maiden name in the city directories.  Gladys and her sister Marion both worked at Capwell's department store in Oakland.

On August 31, 1929 Gladys married Gordon Ernest Kerley in Oakland.  Gordon was born in Montreal, Canada in 1902 and emigrated to the US from Vancouver in about 1925.   Gladys and Gordon were living in San Francisco in the 1930 census, but Gladys's two sons John and Robert were living in Oakland with her mother Sadie.  In 1931, Gladys and Gordon had a son of their own, Gordon Henry Kerley.

By 1936, Gladys and Gordon had moved with all three children to Southern California and John and Robert Elliott were going by John and Robert Kerley.  I don't know if Gordon Kerley formally adopted John and Robert or if they just took their step-father's name.  I'm still following up on my research on all three of Gladys's sons.  Gordon E. Kerley died in 1961 in San Francisco.  Gladys died in Contra Costa county in 1988.  I suspect she was living with (or at least near) her son Robert Kerley who lived in Walnut Creek.