MARJORIE’S STORY
Marjorie Ruth Gilmore was born to Parris and Ida Gilmore on April 28th, 1920 in Redondo Beach, CA. She was the 4th child of 5 sisters – Lottie the oldest (born Lottie Opal), Gloria the 2nd (born Pansy May), Betty 3nd (born Pearl Elizabeth), then Marjorie followed by the youngest Iris (born Dorothy Iris). Marjorie is the girl in the far right in the picture below.
There was a brother who was the first born in the family (Joh Uriel) who didn’t survive his first week of life. Sister Gloria died at age 27 of pneumonia and sister Iris died of septicemia at age 14. Only 3 of the 6 siblings survived well into adulthood.
EDUCATION & CAREER CHOICE
Marjorie grew up in the Bellflower area of Southern California and aside from college years spent near San Francisco, she lived the whole of her life in Southern California. She graduated from Excelsior Union High School in Norwalk, CA in 1937 and went on to Long Beach city college for undergrad work and earned her degree in nursing at the University of California, Berkeley.
As the story goes she had interests in being a journalist early on but ultimately chose nursing when her oldest sister Lottie quit nursing school to join the Church of Christian Science, something Marjorie saw as betraying the profession. She chose nursing to make up for her sister’s “transgression”. Surely she touched many more lives positively as a medical professional than she ever would have as a journalist!
THE LOVE OF HER LIFE
While still attending Berkeley in mid 1940, she met a young army private at a USO dance who caught her fancy – that young man was of course Donald Richards. It wasn’t long before they were engaged and ultimately married in July of 1942 a marriage that would ultimately last 74 years until her passing in 2016. The couple would go on to start a family of 3 children that ultimately ballooned to include 7 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren! You can read all about that story on the FAMILY page (link).