Married a Dental Student

Gertrude Elizabeth Walter was my Aunt Katherine's first cousin once removed. Gertrude was born on 9 March 1908 in Sanistone, West Virginia, to Harry O. and Gertrude Frances Walter. She was their third child and younger sister to Harry Maynard Walter. Her father was a cigar maker at the time of her birth. In 1910 the family lived in Green Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and in 1920 they were back in Baltimore, Maryland, Gertrude's father's hometown. They lived at 804 Hollins Street and her father owned and operated a novelties shop.

Gertrude Elizabeth Walter married Domingo Blasini, a young dental student from Puerto Rico, likely in 1926 as their daughter Celia Gloria Blasini was born in early 1927. Domingo was a junior at the University of Baltimore School of Dentistry that year.

1928 class at the School of Dentistry; courtesy of Ancestry.com

Her husband boarded the S/S Defina in Baltimore on 17 July 1928 after graduating. He traveled with his widowed mother, brother-in-law, sister and their children back to Puerto Rico. They arrived in San Juan on 24 July 1928.

Gertrude and daughter Gloria followed a few months later. They left from New York City on 16 October 1928 aboard the S/S San Lorenzo and arrived on 22 October 1928. Their destination in Puerto Rico was Mayaguez, where her new husband had settled. The young family was enumerated together when the 1930 census was taken. They lived at 147 Calle Hostos in Mayaguez and Gertrude was listed as speaking Spanish. Her husband was a doctor or dentist.

The marriage must have been fairly short lived as Gertrude and Gloria returned to the U.S. on 28 November 1930 arriving in Baltimore aboard the S/S Barbara. Gertrude indicated to ship officials her destination was 2775 West North Street, the home of her parents. Her mother died in 1938 and her father, in 1940.

When the 1940 census was enumerated on 2 April, Gertrude and Gloria lived at 3319 Gwynn Falls Parkway with her sister Mabel and her husband, John Gibson. Gertrude worked as a clerk at a shoe company. She was also enumerated that year on 6 April with her brother, Henry Maynard Walter, who lived at 209 Crain Highway in Glen Burnie. This is not unusual as the census is taken every 10 years over a few months.

In 1944, Gertrude's daughter, Gloria, was a cadet student nurse at St. Agnes Hospital, her nursing corps card indicated Gertrude's occupation was a clerk.

St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore; courtesy of Kilduffs

Gertrude Elizabeth (Walter) Blasini died on 12 December 1974 and was interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery near her parents and brother, Henry. She never remarried although her ex-husband, Domingo Blasini, went on to marry at least two more times. He died in 1980 in Puerto Rico.

Children of Domingo and Gertrude Elizabeth (Walter) Blasini

1. Celia Gloria Blasini born 15 January 1927 in Baltimore, Maryland; trained as a cadet student nurse at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore during World War II; married Jose E. Herrera and had three children; lived in Ellicott City, Maryland; died 11 April 2015.