Bio: Gilbertson, Gertrude (Citizen of the Year - 1967)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Gilbertson,

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 9/14/1967

Gilbertson, Gertrude (Citizen of the Year - 1967)

Mrs. Gertrude Gilbertson, semi-retired funeral director, will be honored as “Citizen of the Year” at the annual Granton Fall Festival September 22-24. This is an honor conferred annually by the Granton Rotary Club and Granton Future Farmers, sponsors of the event.

This year the Gilbertsons are celebrating 40 years in Granton. They came to Granton in 1927 from Black River Falls and started a furniture store and embalming service. In those days the embalming was done in the home, where the body was kept until the time of church services.

Mr. Gilbertson died in 1931 and it was then that Mrs. Gilbertson went to Milwaukee to the Goodman School of Embalming for six months to receive her embalmer’s license. Later, this was changed to funeral director, and upon applying she received license No. 8 in the state. She aided Mr. Gilbertson, so the business was not entirely new to her. In those early days, she rented a hearse out of Marshfield.

Her son, Erwin entered the business in 1942 and took his apprenticeship training under his mother. The furniture store was discontinued in 1955.

Mrs. Gilbertson has seen Granton grow from a horse and buggy town to a modern little village. Gone are the printing office, Hart’s meat business, the dentist, and the jeweler, but in their place, is a modern drug store, hardware store and village hall.

Mrs. Gilbertson, who now lives in a new home next to the funeral home, is a member of Zion Lutheran Church and has four children. They are Erwin, Granton; Mrs. Richard (Jane) Aschbeck, Greenwood; Clarence, Rockford, Ill.; and Mrs. Gerald (Betty) Marg, Granton.

Mrs. Gilbertson will ride in the parade Sunday, September 24, final day of the annual festival, as the “Citizen of the Year.”