Gertrude Diffen Conlon Marriott 1914-1957

MARRIOTT, DIFFEN, CONLON

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 10/31/2010 at 20:26:47

Mrs. Harold Marriott, 42, Is Dead

Mrs. Harold (Gertrude) Marriott, 42, died yesterday at Holy Family hospital of cancer. Mrs. Marriott had been seriously ill for the past year and had been confined to her bed first at home at various times at University Hospital in Iowa City, the Good Samaritan Home and at Holy Family hospital where she had been since May 22.

Gertrude Diffen was born Sept. 27, 1914 in Brussels, Belgium. Her parents both lost their lives in World War I and at the age of six months she was one of a large number of Belgian orphans brought to this country by ship. Placed in a Sioux Falls, S.D., Orphan Home, she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. P. F. Conlon when she was two years, 10 months of age.

The Conlons lived at Sioux Falls for a few years after which they lived at Dubuque, Emmetsburg and West Bend. It was in Emmetsburg that their foster daughter received her schooling.

Gertrude Conlon and Harold Marriott were married Aug. 16, 1937, and spent their entire married life in Estherville. Mr. Marriott died in November, 1950. Also preceding Mrs. Marriott in death was an infant daughter, Kathleen, who died in 1940 at the age of seven months and her foster parents.

Since her husband’s death, Mrs. Marriott had worked as a telephone operator and at the F.W. Woolworth store.

Surviving her in death are a son, A-3c Dale Marriott, who left five days ago for Japan after an emergency leave here of more than a month; three daughters, Carol, 19; Kathryn, 13, and Barbara, 12; also her mother-in-law, Mrs. John Campbell.

Funeral services for Mrs. Marriott are to be held tomorrow at 9 a.m. at St. Patrick’s church, the Rev. Father J. H. Duhigg officiating. Rosary will be recited tonight at 8 at the Sternborg Funeral Chapel. Burial will be in Oak Hill cemetery. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, August 13, 1957)