Gertrude "Gertie" Cederstrom Orde was born Gertrud Ingeberg Cederström on June 6, 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father, Karl "Charles" Johan Cederström, was born in 1857 in Sweden and came to America in 1879. Her mother, Hilma Ingeberg, was born in 1873 in Sweden and came to America in 1889. Her parents married in 1893 and had three children, Eva (b.1899), and twins Charles and Gertrude (b.1901). The family lived at 2614 Caroline Street in St. Louis, where the father owned and operated the Cederstrom Jewelry Company at 723 Locust Street.
In 1908 Gertrude and Charles Cederstrom, at the age of seven, completed the second grade of elementary school. During that summer Charles Cederstrom died in an accidental drowning. After this tragic death the family left Missouri and moved to Minnesota, where the father bought a travel agency and hotel on the corner of Hennepin and Washington Avenues.
On December 21, 1912, the father, Charles J. Cederstrom, after a short illness, died at the age of fifty-five in Minneapolis.
In 1916 the artist first worked as a photo retoucher at the Miller Studio at 3021 Irving Avenue South in Minneapolis.
In 1920 the Minneapolis Business Directory listed the artist as "Gertrude Ingeberg Cederstrom" at 3021 Irving Avenue South.
In 1921 she attended art classes at the Minneapolis Art Institute and the Walker Art Center.
In 1921 Gertrude Cederstrom, age twenty, married De Lisle Orde, age twenty-three. He was born October 25, 1898 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was a student at Minnesota University, where he studied advertising. He had served in the army during the Great War, and while stationed in Arizona, had married his first wife, but divorced soon afterwards. He was the only son of George and Charlotte Orde. His father was the vice-president of Midland National Bank of Minneapolis.
On October 11, 1922 De Lisle and Gertrude Orde had a daughter, Charlotte Gertrude Orde. She was named after De Lisle's mother, Charlotte Orde.
In 1924 DeLisle, Gertrude, and baby Charlotte Orde moved to Chicago where the husband and wife worked in advertising. While living in Chicago the artist attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
Unfortunately the marriage ended in divorce, after which Gertrude and her daughter returned to Minneapolis, where she painted calendar art for Brown & Bigelow, publishers of St. Paul, MN.
In 1929 the artist and her daughter lived in the hotel owned by her widowed mother, Hilma Cederstrom. The artist's older sister, Eva, had married to become Eva Daulton, and she had a son, Carl Daulton (b.1920), but her husband had died, so they also lived in the hotel.
In 1930 the entire family moved to Los Angeles, where they lived at 202 North Ridgewood. Gertrude C. Orde worked as an artist at a "motion picture studio." She showed her cousin Carl Daulton, age ten, how to do photo retouching and he soon found work as a portrait photographer.
The January 1932 cover of Fawcett's Battle Stories had a cover by G. C. Orde that featured a portrait of Lew Ayres in the character of "Paul" from "All Quiet On The Western Front," a sensational 1930 Hollywood movie by Carl Laemmle based on the popular anti-war novel by Erich Remarque.
"G. C. Orde" is not to be confused with "C. J. Orde," a British artist and veteran of the Royal Flying Corps, who was most renowned for his dignified portraits of heroic pilots.
During the Great Depression the artist's mother left Los Angeles and returned to Minneapolis, where she resumed her work as the manager of the family hotel.
On May 21, 1938 The Minneapolis Tribune reported in a banner headline, "Surprise Witness, Mrs. Hilma Cederstrom, Stunned Courtroom."
In 1938 Gertrude and her daughter Charlotte moved to an apartment at 736 North Edenburgh in Los Angeles, where the artist was commissioned to design an extensive outdoor advertising campaign for White King Soap featuring Shirley Jean Rickert, a child actress from Hal Roach's "Our Gang Comedies."
On July 19, 1940 The Minneapolis Star Journal published an article on Gertrude C. Orde.
On October 24, 1940 The Minneapolis Star Journal published a Sunday supplement magazine that featured a cover painting by G. C. Orde. The contents page included a brief article about the artist.
In 1941 the artist's daughter, Charlotte, graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles.
On September 24, 1941 the artist's mother, Hilma Cederstrom, died at the age of sixty-nine in Minneapolis.
On October 30, 1942 Gertrude C. Orde married Marcus Randolph Nelson in Minneapolis. He was age forty-three, born August 12, 1897 in Gibbon, Minnesota. He was an Army veteran of the Great War, and owned a plumbing business.
On December 6, 1943 the artist's daughter, Charlotte Orde, married Richard George Pearson. They had one child, Gail Elizabeth Pearson (b.1946).
On October 17, 1947 The Minneapolis Morning Tribune published an article on Gertrude C. Orde Nelson.
On January 7, 1951 Charlotte Gertrude Orde (Nelson) Pearson died at the age of twenty-eight in Contra Costa, CA. After this tragic death, Charlotte's daughter, Gail Elizabeth Pearson, lived with the artist. After one year, in 1952, Richard George Pearson married a second wife, and his daughter Gail returned to live with her father and new step-mother.
The artist Gertrude Ingeberg Cederstrom Orde Nelson died at age fifty-eight on October 6, 1959.
Her second husband, Marcus Randolph Nelson, lived to the age of seventy and died on February 6, 1968.
Her first husband, DeLisle Orde, lived to the age of seventy-four and died on November 26, 1972.
© David Saunders 2019 |
