Martha Virginia Trine was born on March 21, 1904, and was named partly for her paternal grandmother and partly for the state in which she was born. On that first day of Spring, her father David Winfield Trine had noted in his diary the purchase of 2000 cabbage plants and the digging of holes for 47 rhubarb roots. His entry ended, "Rain most of the day, very hard storm just at night. Martha Virginia Trine born at 4:30 p.m." Virginia, as she was known, was deaf, inheriting the same condition as three of her siblings. After her father's death the family returned to Michigan, where little four-year-old Virginia was enrolled in the Michigan School for the Deaf. She wasn't yet five when Admiral Robert Evans, a public figure during the Spanish American War, visited the school. Virginia was chosen to give him a bouquet of flowers, but she also gave him an impromptu kiss. This so touched the Admiral and his wife that they continued to write to Virginia until their deaths. She was artistically talented and good at crafts. According to her mother, Virginia "could just make anything." On August 15, 1925 in Flint, Michigan the Reverend James A. McGee married Virginia Trine to Andrew Gilbert, the son of William and _____ (Lang) Gilbert. Having had scarlet fever as a child, Virginia Gilbert was left with a very weak heart. Eventually that, combined with pregnancy, killed her. Before she died, she went blind, yet could read sign language by holding the spelling hand in hers. She died on April 21, 1933, not yet 30 years old.
Martha Virginia Trine was born on March 21, 1904, and was named partly for her paternal grandmother and partly for the state in which she was born. On that first day of Spring, her father David Winfield Trine had noted in his diary the purchase of 2000 cabbage plants and the digging of holes for 47 rhubarb roots. His entry ended, "Rain most of the day, very hard storm just at night. Martha Virginia Trine born at 4:30 p.m." Virginia, as she was known, was deaf, inheriting the same condition as three of her siblings. After her father's death the family returned to Michigan, where little four-year-old Virginia was enrolled in the Michigan School for the Deaf. She wasn't yet five when Admiral Robert Evans, a public figure during the Spanish American War, visited the school. Virginia was chosen to give him a bouquet of flowers, but she also gave him an impromptu kiss. This so touched the Admiral and his wife that they continued to write to Virginia until their deaths. She was artistically talented and good at crafts. According to her mother, Virginia "could just make anything." On August 15, 1925 in Flint, Michigan the Reverend James A. McGee married Virginia Trine to Andrew Gilbert, the son of William and _____ (Lang) Gilbert. Having had scarlet fever as a child, Virginia Gilbert was left with a very weak heart. Eventually that, combined with pregnancy, killed her. Before she died, she went blind, yet could read sign language by holding the spelling hand in hers. She died on April 21, 1933, not yet 30 years old.
Family Members
Spouse
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
