Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis, My Paternal Grandmother
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 2 – January 8-14, 2026
Prompt: A Record That Adds Color
Records are not the only way to add color to an ancestor. In the case of my Wallis Grandmother, Gertrude “Gertie” Susan Goldsmith Wallis, color is added through the quilt she made and through photographs — even though they are in black and white — described and explained by her daughter, my Aunt Gladys.
I wrote about her quilt in Blog Post #6, A Tale of Two Quilts (February 2025).
Gertie died August 16, 1943 before my parents met, married, or started a family. My father rarely talked about his mother. He more or less adopted my mother’s family as his own when he married at the young age of 18.
So when I wanted to know about Grandma Wallis, who was also my namesake (we share middle names), I went to my father’s older sister, Aunt Gladys. She told me stories, and I took notes. When I asked for a picture, she sent several — each accompanied by letters that explained who was in the photo, where it was taken, and why it mattered. Those letters have become the “record that adds color” to her life.
Born in Madison County, Arkansas — in a Flood
Gertrude Susan Goldsmith was born September 2, 1888 near Huntsville in Madison County, Arkansas. Her parents, David Milton Goldsmith and Nancy Curtis Dudgeon, lived in Sedan, Kansas, but were visiting her mother’s parents in Arkansas for the summer. Nancy went into town for supplies, but encountered a flooded stream. She got on one of the horses, cut loose the wagon, and everything was lost. Gertie was born prematurely the next morning. It was said that she was so tiny her father’s ring would fit over her head. They put her in a warming oven in a box filled with carded wool and saved her. A dresser drawer became her bassinet.
Telephone Operator in Indian Territory
In 1903, the Goldsmith family moved to Indian Territory. Gertie soon became a telephone operator in Ramona, Oklahoma. In November 1905, The Ramona Herald reported that the Pioneer Telephone Company had issued a new directory with fifty subscribers, and that new subscribers would have to wait until more could be accommodated. The following year they were installing additional poles for expanded lines and there were advertisements for “telephone apparatus.”
Even without photographs, I can picture her perched on a stool, headset on, speaking politely into early switchboard equipment — her voice carrying the newest form of color: electricity and communication.
A Love Story That Changed Direction
One of Aunt Gladys’s letters explained how my grandparents met. C.B. Wallis was visiting his brothers, Scott and Will, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma before going on to Panama to work on the Panama Canal. But he met Gertrude Goldsmith, fell in love, and stayed in Oklahoma to work in the oil fields instead.
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| Postcard photo sent to Gertie's double aunt, Mrs. M.E. Goldsmith 5 weeks after their marriage. |
C.B. and Gertie were married March 6, 1910 in Creek County. Their marriage license states they were both from Keifer, near Sapulpa.
Oil Boom Towns & Family Photographs
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| Unknown boy, Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis, Dollie Daniels Wallis, Violet Wallis, Gertie's sister Ora Goldsmith White, Gertie's mother Nancy Jane Dudgeon Goldsmith, Gertie's brother Clarence. Children in front of Dollie are her children: Archie, William and Bennie, William being the tallest. Remaining women and children are unknown, |
Aunt Gladys said this picture was made about 1909, but I believe it was taken in the early days of their marriage because it includes not only Gertie’s family — her mother, her sister Ora, and her brother Clarence — but also her sister-in-law Dollie and Dollie’s children. Gladys wrote that the picture was made on the oil lease where they all lived between Sapulpa and Keifer.
Their first child, Gladys Juanita, was born in an oilfield shack somewhere between Oilton and Drumright (both in Creek County) in 1911, followed by Charles Bert Jr., born in Quay, Payne County, in 1917. These were all oil boom towns tied to the nearby Cushing Oil Field.
Another photo was taken at Cushing, Oklahoma at the Magnolia Petroleum Company lease when both of Glady's grandmothers (my great grandmothers) visited in the winter of 1920–21.
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| Gladys Wallis, Nancy Jane Dudgeon Goldsmith, Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis, Sophia McCool Wallis and in front Bert Wallis Jr. |
The next photo was taken in the fall of 1922 at a studio. Gladys remembered that “Mom and Daddy had fussed about the appointment and it shows in their faces.”
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| Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis, Gladys Wallis, C.B. Wallis, and Bert Wallis Jr. |
Flowers as Color
I imagine that Gertie loved flowers. In the photo below, she is dressed for winter weather in a wool coat and hat, holding a pot of poinsettias.
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| Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis |
The next photo, taken with my father, shows her standing next to a large garden of tulips. On the back someone wrote, “April 24, 1939, Tulsa, Okla.”
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| Spring Tulips, Tracy Park, 11th and Peoria, Tulsa, OK Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis and Ralph David Wallis |
I spent weeks trying to figure out where this was in Tulsa. I finally asked a friend who owned a shop for gardeners and had lived in Tulsa all her life. She immediately recognized it as Tracy Park at 11th and Peoria. I have driven by there hundreds of times but have never seen it planted with tulips. Ironically, it is across the street from where my maternal great-grandmother is buried. If she had a headstone, you could see it from Tracy Park. And little did my father know that his future bride’s high school, Central, could also be seen from that location in 1939.
83 years later I found the spot that once had" Tulips in Spring."
I haven’t found a family event in 1939 that would have brought them to Tulsa except that her sister Cynthia lived nearby — again, ironically — right down the street from a house my husband owns.
Loss of Sight
Gertrude lost her eyesight to diabetes. I hope she had colorful memories of quilts and flowers.
One Final Color — Flowers at Her Grave
The final picture is of Gertrude’s grave, piled high with flowers. Even in black and white, it adds color to her story.
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| Gertrude Susan Goldsmith Wallis grave, Arlington Cemetery, El Dorado, Arkansas. |
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