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- Gerrie Truax’ Story…
Gerrie was the only child of Madesse Ames and Phil Truax. She was born at Victory Hospital in Waukegan, IL, and she grew up in the house that Phil built for them at 914 McAree Rd. Gerrie and her mother were very close and had a special relationship their whole lives; this was especially true after Madesse and Phil divorced.
Gerrie had many hobbies and talents as a young girl – she loved dancing, including tap dancing, and she was involved in music and singing clubs, Girl Scouts, and high school theater at Waukegan Township High School. She started dating Loren Simmons in the spring of her freshman year, and the rest, as they say, is history. Loren was a senior and after their first date, they were immediately smitten.
Although she was unofficially betrothed to Loren, who was off at college, Gerrie attended the University of Illinois for her freshman year. Then she and Loren wed in August of 1946.
My mother Gerrie encouraged my love of genealogy at an early age, and we would often go through antique family photos together, retelling stories handed down. We didn’t talk very much about her father’s Truax family roots, and later I would find out how her father had been sent to an orphanage after his mother died. In the year leading up to my mother’s death in 2004, she asked me to find out more information for her on Phil Truax’ ancestry. It was one of the last fun times we would have that year, as her health started to decline. But she was so excited that I found out more about the Truax family than she had known growing up.
My parents decided to leave Illinois in 1979 – my father got a promotion and we headed to the Monterey Bay area of California. Looking back, I’m sure it must have been a hard decision to leave, with aging parents and having to say goodbye to so many lifelong friends. But despite the emotion of leaving, Gerrie and Loren embraced their new adventure in California, quickly getting involved in a new way of life… without those harsh Midwest winters!
My mother branched out in cooking and baking, taking full advantage of the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables that the Salinas Valley offered. No more canned or frozen items (we were all glad about that). My mother and father always had a love of entertaining and they continued this tradition in all the places they lived, meeting new neighbors and making lots of new friends along the way.
Gerrie and Loren enjoyed visits from lots of family and lifelong friends, playing tour guides all over the Monterey Peninsula; they loved bringing the beauty of California anyone who visited.
And in each house that they lived in, they continued the tradition of placing all our antique family photos on a wall, to always remember our roots. I carry on this same tradition, with all my beloved photos in a room. Sometimes I like to just sit and look at all of the familiar faces, and realize how lucky I am to have all this amazing family history. So much of that is from my mother Gerrie.
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Simmons-Truax-Godbout-Ames Family Tree
1927 - 2004 (77 years)
