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Gerald, first born of Harry and Amelia, was born in Michigan, but grew up in Deer Park, Washington (state). Gerald graduated from Deer Park Public Schools in 1922. Based on a picture, I suspect he played school football (this might explain his fascination with the Washington Redskins later in life, and his intricate drive charts). Gerald reportedly left home when he was 18 years old, never to return.
Gerald was part of a touring Vaudeville act that ran at least from 1926 to 1927. According to a stack of artist contracts with various talent agencies, this act involved singing and dancing. P.R. photos of Gerald describe him as being part of a two-man show, "Brent + Lee. 8 Minutes of Comedy. 1 In Song." It is not known if this was the 1926-1927 act or not. He is also pictured in several undated photos of blackface performers.
I associate four musical instruments with grandpa, which resided at his house: A violin, a trumpet, a trombone, and a guitar. Mike and Mary threw the violin away since it was in poor shape. The trumpet (actually a silver coronet) was last in Mike's possession. (I played it for a year or so when I played trumpet in 5th grade band -- I was the only one in class that had a silver coronet instead of a brass trumpet.) The trombone was last known to be in Richard's possession. I have the guitar... it is a small-sized classical guitar of completely unremarkable quality. It is not known which, if any, of these instruments Gerald played. It has been speculated that the violin belonged to Marjorie Lee Marshall, Gerald's sister-in-law, who is known to have played violin.
According to the book Samuel Brown and His Descendants, Gerald married Georgennea Brown in 1934. I have no other official confirmation of this (Carol Anglen noted that they were married in New York, something I'd never heard before). Georgennea had been recently divorced (early 1930s) from her first husband (Carl Alfred Marshall). It is not known how they met, though one of Gerald's publicity shots was autographed to her. Perhaps they met at one of his shows.
Later in life, Gerald worked for a brewery company.
Gerald and Georgennea lived at 3606 Norton Place, N.W., in Washington, DC, until around 1952, when they moved into what I've always thought of as "grandpa's house" at 6041 O'Day Drive, Centreville, VA. There was a decent-sized duck pond in the front yard until Hurricane Agnus (I think) came along and washed out the dam, destroying the pond. Stray cats frequently congregated around grandpa's house, reportedly because Georgennea put out food for them. This became a problem later when the cats started attacking the ducks, so the cat population had to be, err, thinned.
It's thought that Mom had a somewhat strained relationship with Grandpa toward the end of his life. Jane reported that Mom spoke of being an ACA (Adult Child of Alcoholic), presumably refering to Gerald. I can recall that Grandpa often did have a beer at hand, and I recall one incident where he made a bit of a scene yelling at Mom before we moved to Richmond, when we were collecting some furniture or something from his house. It has been speculated that Gerald and Georgennea were somewhat "controlling" parents, and Mom bore the brunt of that.
Dad once told David and Jane that he strived to be a good father-in-law because he knew what it was like to live with the worst in-laws in the world (referring to Gerald and Georgennea, with whom Mom and Dad lived for many years). I don't know specifically why he thought they were the worst in-laws in the world. I only heard this second-hand after he died.
After Grandpa died in 1981, Mike and Richard lived in his house for a while. A few years later, Mom sold the property for around $200,000 (most of this money went into CDs -- it's possible that Mom left her forensic secretary job at this time also), and the house was torn down and replaced with a sea of townhouses. (This was part of the great population explosion that took place in Centreville during the 1980s.) Much of the furniture from Grandpa's house found its way to our living room in Chester. After Dad died, most of that furniture was sold off in an estate sale.
One of Grandpa's trunks, seen in a photograph of young Gerald, may yet survive. During the 1980s, it resided in the guest room closet. The last time I saw it was in the basement of the house in Chester, when David and Jane lived there. David may have taken it to Goochland with him. It's also possible that the trunk went to Mike and Mary, and they may have thrown it out. The trunk contained family photographs, if I remember correctly. Mike spoke of throwing away a large amount of photographs after Grandpa died, which he believed once belonged to Marjorie Lee Marshall. (TODO: Check with Mike/David on this.)
Tom Krehbiel, 3 Apr 2006
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Update, 4 Apr 2006
"I also spoke with Mike tonight and he told me the whole story about how Grandpa died. I had the gist of it right. He fell down the basement steps and had to be taken to the hospital. (This was sometime in late 1980.) He suffered some broken bones (Mike mentioned a broken vertebrae), but nothing life-threatening. While he was in the hospital they found he had an enlarged aorta, unrelated to the accident. Surgery was scheduled to correct it in December 1980 (Mike didn't remember exactly what was done to "correct" an enlarged aorta). The surgery was performed and it was successful, but while they were observing him in the days after surgery he started to develop other problems (he didn't remember the exact details). His organs started shutting down, and eventually he fell into a coma. (My wife, a former nurse, suggested this might have been the result of a staff infection.) In January 1981 (Mike thought it was the 3rd or 4th) Mom and Dad decided to take him off of life support, because the doctors said he was basically brain dead and there was no chance of recovery. Mike confirmed he was buried in National Memorial Park Cemetary in Falls Church."
Mike told me last night: 1) The trombone I mentioned above was actually purchased for Richard to take lessons in school; it was never Grandpa's. 2) Grandpa played the silver coronet in his Vaudeville act, though he didn't know how seriously he played it. 3) They threw out Grandpa's old trunks, some of which were Marjorie's.
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32
30 Michigan, United States
Source: Social Security Death Index
