As a girl, circa 1883

With Elsie Coulthard Thompson and
Retta Blackwell Thompson

Bertha Thompson
1877-1961

Our maternal grandmother was Bertha Thompson. She was born in Cowley County, Kansas, the ninth child of Rufus Thompson and Clarinda Baker. Bertha married Francis Pinkney Gray (1869-1950) in 1901 in Fresno, California and they raised two girls, Frances Gray Hand (1903-1989) and our mother Clara Gray Klaisner (1909-2009). She and Pinkney also adopted a son Charles Hillis Gray (1923-1945). Bertha died in Modesto, California on 2 Jun 1961.

Photographs of
Bertha Thompson Gray

With her younger brother Walter

With her husband Francis Pinkney Gray

With siblings Orator, Andrew, Walter (back row) and Elsie Thompson (front row)

With daughters Frances and Clara
and husband Pinkney

With her eldest daughter Frances

With her husband Pinkney on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1951

Frances Gray’s account of Bertha’s Life

This 20-page account from Frances Gray Hand in 1974 provides recollections of her mother Bertha Thompson Gray.

Charles “Hillis” Gray (1923-1945)

Hillis was the beloved adopted son of Pinkney and Bertha (Thompson) Gray

Later Years

Newspapers.com, Modesto Bee, Modesto, California, 20 Feb 1957, p. 38 : downloaded 11 Aug 2024