Muriel Gilbert Led a Quiet Life

Muriel Martha Gilbert, the only daughter of Mary Martha Gleeson and Warren Edmond Gilbert, was born on 19 October 1895 in San Francisco, California.[1] She died 11 May 1856 in Los Angeles, and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.[2]

She lived with her parents her whole life and never married. I have a photo of her, her parents, my grandmother, my aunt, Lorene, and my grandmother's father, taken in 1923/24. My grandmother and Muriel were first cousins. 

Warren, Mary Martha, Anna Hork, Lorene Hork, Muriel, John H. Sullivan

In 1915, the family moved to Elsinore Valley, where her father was involved in real estate. She offered herself as a teacher of the piano by placing an ad in the paper.[3] She taught beginners as well as more advanced students, using Mrs. Crosby Adams method.[4] Juliette Graves Adams and her husband Crosby Adams established the Crosby Adams School in Chicago which included teacher-training in public school music, and also offered programs in instrumental music, vocal music, harmony, and music theory.[5] A music book for the piano by Mrs. Crosby Adams was published in 1915 and may have been one of the instruction books Muriel used.[6]

There was one bit of excitement in her life that made the news. On her way home from giving a music lesson, She was thrown from a pony, and luckily the stirrup broke or otherwise she may have been dragged.[7]

In 1920, she lived at 829 Lake Street with her parents. Her father, Warren was a renter. Muriel was listed as a music teacher on her own account.[8]

In 1930, she lived with her mother, Mary M. Gilbert at the same address. Her mother was a renter, paying $80 per month. Her mother was the proprietor of a rooming house and they had two lodgers and Claude Gilbert, Mary’s step son also lived with them. Muriel had no occupation listed. Perhaps she helped her mother with the rooming house.[9] Her father had died on 24 March 1930.[10]

By 1937, she had applied for Social Security with a disability established, though no record of the type was included in the database.[11]

In 1940, she and her mother continued living at 829 South Lake Street. Her mother paid $20 in rent. She had completed four years of high school, and worked eleven weeks in 1939, making $99. Her mother received income from another source.[12] The 1940 city directory listed her occupation as clerk.[13]

In 1950, Muriel was 54 years old and looking for work. Her previous work had been clerical in the office of the archbishop.[14]

Muriel died on 11 May 1956.[15] She was 60 years old. There was a brief notice in The Tidings, the official newspaper of Archdiocese of Los Angeles, published every Friday. Her listing was under “Pray for the Dead” that listed those who had departed and had requiem Masses offered for them. “Muriel M. Gilbert. 829 S. Lake St. May 14 at Immaculate Conception. Survivor: mother, Mary M. Gilbert. Interment, Calvary. Cunningham & O’Connor.”[16]

I never met Muriel; however, I have some of her items. She put together a photo album of photos of the Gleeson and Tierney families. She kept track of birthdays, marriages, and deaths in a little “My Birthday Address Book” and kept track of families in another book. She even had my birthday in her book. She had a special way of making her capital M with three vertical lines and one cross line that looks like a pagoda.

She must have lived a quiet life. Perhaps she played the piano. Perhaps she read or wrote. She knew everyone’s births, marriages, and deaths, so may have corresponded with family often. Or her mother did and she kept track of the facts. These little books were a start of my researching the Sullivan and Gleeson families. The photo album had photos of Tierney families of Canada.

To do items: I should get her death certificate out of Los Angeles County and send away for her Social Security Application to see if there is any reference to a disability.

#52Ancestors: Week 16 – A Quiet Life

This is my ninth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’sSouthern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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[1] "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007," database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60901/records/13944376 : accessed 7 Feb 2019), Muriel Martha Gilbert, SSN 569059704.

[2] “Pray for the Dead,” The Tidings, 18 May 1956, p. 17, col. 2, “Gilbert, Muriel M.” She is buried in Section G, L1009, grave 3, however, I visited the cemetery in 2008 and there is no marker.

[3] “Muriel M. Gilbert,” Lake Elsinore Valley Press, 26 Nov 1915, p. 3, col. 6.

[4] Lake Elsinore Valley Press, 5 Nov 1915, p. 6, col. 4.

[5] “Crosby Adams Collection,” Montreat College (https://www.montreat.edu/library/crosby-adams-collection/ : accessed 14 Apr 2026).

[6] Thirty Improvisations in all the Major and Minor Keys for Piano (Clayton F Summy Co, 1915), imaged, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/thirtyimprovisat00adam : accessed 14 Apr 2026).

[7] Lake Elsinore Valley Press, 7 Jan 1916, p. 6, col. 3.

[8] 1920 U.S. census, Los Angeles Co, California, Los Angeles Assembly District 75, ED 466, p. 67 rev (stamped), family 370, Warren E Gilbert.

[9] 1930 U.S. census, Los Angeles Co, California, Los Angeles City, ED 334, p. 180 rev (stamped), dwelling 4, family 27, Mary M. Gilbert.

[10] California Department of Health Services, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Standard Certificate of Death, Los Angeles City, local reg no. 3443, 1930, Warren E. Gilbert.

[11] “U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60901/), Muriel Martha Gilbert, SSN 569059704, June 1937.

[12] 1940 U.S. census, Los Angeles Co, California, Los Angeles, ED 60-936, p. 6676 (stamped), household 381, Mary M. Gilbert.

[13] Los Angeles City Directory 1940 (Los Angeles Directory Co, 1940), p. 744, Muriel M. Gilbert, imaged, “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469/ : accessed 14 Apr 2026).

[14] 1950 U.S. census, Los Angeles Co, California, Los Angeles, ED 66-1887, p. 19, household 220, Mary M Gilbert.

[15] “Gilbert,” Los Angeles Times, 13 May 1956, p. 50, col. 3.

[16] “Pray for the Dead,” The Tidings, 18 May 1956, p. 17, col. 2, “Gilbert, Muriel M.”

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