Mary Jane Ellingwood
The third daughter of Cudge Ellingwood and Ruth Short, born at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1926 and named for her two grandmothers. She studied interior decorating and home economics at Washington State, married Phil Smith in 1949, and lived at Salt Lake City and then Denver, where she raised her children Christie, Greg, Carolyn and Doug. It was she who urged her father to finish his memoir. She died in 2007.
Life
- 1926Born29 Sep 1926, Madison, Wisconsindocumentedprobable
- 1930LivedMadison, Dane County, Wisconsin
In her parents' household. Attached in the Ancestry tree; not checked here.
documentedprobable - 1937Lived
- 1949LivedSalt Lake City, Utah
With her husband Phil Smith, in a little rented house on the edge of town, then a very nice home they later sold.
documentedprobable - 〃Married Philip Smith15 Jul 1949, Spokane, Washington
"They were married, also here in Spokane, on July 15, 1949" (her father's memoir, scan 162).
documentedprobable - 1985Lived
- —Lived
- 2007Died7 Oct 2007
She had died before her brother Dick (obituary, April 2019).
Family
- Father
- Mother
- Spouse
- Philip Smith
"His wife of 58 years, Mary Ellingwood Smith," in Phil's obituary (2018).
4 children
- Private
- Private
- Private
- Private
Pedigree
Notes
The third daughter, born at Madison on 29 September 1926, “named after her two grandmothers,” Mary Pattullo and Jennie Elliott. As a baby she hated being left alone at bedtime but was otherwise happy and alert, “with a beautiful smile she never lost”; as a little girl she screamed and cried whenever the family car got stuck in the mud, a standing family joke (Cudge’s memoir, scans 106, 109-110).
In high school in Spokane she went with Laird McEntee[?], “one of the finest boys we knew.” He was killed in the war, and her parents kept the news through her sister Ruth’s swimming meet at Pullman before her father drove her out to a hill at the edge of town and told her: “I think it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life” (scan 161). After a year’s work as a typist she followed Ruth to Washington State, joined the Alpha Gamma Deltas, swam on the team and studied interior decorating and home economics. There she met Phil Smith; they married at Spokane on 15 July 1949 (scan 162).
They lived first at Salt Lake City, where Phil was with Westinghouse, and then at Denver, where he went into business as a manufacturer’s representative (scans 162, 176). Her aunt Bea Short lived in an apartment at Salt Lake while they were there. In the summer of 1970, home in Spokane with Greg, Carolyn and Doug, she reminded her father “that there are many gaps in the stories our children can recall, and urged me to get them down,” and he took up his memoir again (scan 4). Her husband’s obituary (2018) calls her “his wife of 58 years, Mary Ellingwood Smith,” and names their children Christie, Greg, Carolyn and Doug, with five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren (obituary).
She died on 7 October 2007, as the FamilySearch tree has it, before her husband and her brother Dick.
Open questions
- Where she died, and her obituary (Denver area, October 2007), which would name her children and grandchildren.
- Her birth certificate (Madison, 1926) and her marriage record (Spokane, 1949): the records that carry the line from Ruth Short to her children.
Cudge's memoir
In the summer of 1970 Mary, home with her children Greg, Carolyn and Doug, urged her father to take up the memoir again and get the family stories down.
Mary was home this summer with Greg, Carolyn and Doug, and in digging through some old records and papers she reminded me that there are many gaps in the stories our children can recall, and urged me to get them down.
p. 1 →As a little girl Mary would scream and cry whenever the family car got stuck in the mud, a standing family joke.
None of the children was particularly disturbed expect Mary. That was one thing Mary could not stand, to have us stuck in the car.
p. G16 →Mary Jane, the third daughter, was born on 29 September 1926 and named after her two grandmothers.
Our third daughter, Mary Jane (named after her two grandmothers) was born on September 29, 1926. She was a beautiful baby, a real sweetheart.
p. G19 →As a baby Mary hated being left alone at bedtime but was otherwise happy and alert, with a beautiful smile she never lost.
But she was, otherwise, a very happy baby, alert and interesting. She had a beautiful smile, which, as you know, has not left her.
p. G20 →When her brother Dick, out past curfew, tried to climb in through her bedroom window over the porch, Mary woke and screamed, taking him for a burglar.
She thought a burgler was trying to come in, so she let out a scream that you could hear a block away.
p. I21 →When Mary's high school sweetheart Laird McEntee was killed in the war, her parents kept the news through her sister Ruth's swimming meet at Pullman before her father told her.
Then I made some excuse to take Mary with me alone, and we drove out on the edge of town on a hill; and I told her about Laird. I think it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life.
p. I28 →After a year's work Mary followed her sister Ruth to Washington State, swam on the team and studied interior decorating and home economics, and married Phil Smith in Spokane on 15 July 1949.
He had a long trying time to convince Mary, but finally she confessed to us that she was going to get married.
p. I29 →Mary and Phil left Salt Lake City for Denver when Phil left Westinghouse to work as a manufacturer's representative.
They have been very happy there, even with their ups and downs, and it was a very good move for them.
p. J5 →
Connections
- In her ancestry
- 60 notable connections →
Every notable ancestor and famous relative that Mary's own ancestors lead to, with the lines drawn down to her.