Gertrude Stein Adelman, known as Gertie, (and also as Yampa when she was growing up) was born on October 18, 1918. She attended Marshall High School, as did the others Steins, and graduated in 1936. As a teen-ager, she often dated some of Sam’s boyfriends.

She met her future husband, Jack Adelman, at the Aragon Ballroom and shortly afterward invited him to a spaghetti dinner that Sylvia was having. Jack was splitting his time between Chicago and Greencastle, IN, where his father was starting a scrap metal business. He was drafted immediately after Dec. 7, 1941, and was eventually sent to Trinidad. When Jack returned to the States he and Gertie were married in Chicago at Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Warren Boulevard. That was on Dec. 19, 1943. For the rest of the war they lived in Oklahoma City, OK, where Jack was stationed at Tinker Field.

In late 1945, when Jack was discharged, they moved to Clinton, IN, where Jack opened a scrap yard. Rita was born there on Feb. 4, 1946, followed by Leah on Nov. 27, 1948, Larry on April 13, 1951, and Steve 0n Oct. 10, 1954. Gertie had many friends, both in Clinton and the Jewish community in Terre Haute, and was involved in community activities. She was very close to her siblings and her parents, and when her children were small, she often took them to Chicago for a few weeks at a time. In 1951, when Larry was 6 months old, she took him, Rita and Leah to Hot Springs and they spent a month with her parents. Family members often visited in Clinton. Sometimes her mother and father would simply “show up” at the door, complete with herring and Little Jack’s cheesecake.

In 1958 Dorothy came to live with the Adelmans after her husband Herbie died. Gertie did not want her to be alone and felt that her sister should be with family. That fall, when the family moved to Richmond, IN, Dorothy went along for a period of time. By this time the kids were older, Richmond was further from Chicago, and the visits there became fewer. Her parents still came to visit in Richmond and her siblings when they could. In Richmond, once again, she made many friends and was active in the formation of Richmond’s first organized jewish community. She learned to play golf and once even tried to teach her father how to play!

Gertie was a kind, warm and loving person to those of us who knew her and she was taken from us when she was far too young. She developed breast cancer in 1965, and during the next three years the disease continued to spread. During that time, in 1967, the family moved from Richmond to Ft. Wayne, IN. It was in Ft. Wayne that she died on Dec. 26, 1968, just two months after her 50th birthday, and one week after she and Jack celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. Within 10 years the family lost Herbie, Joe, Becky, Ida, Philip and Gertie (Phillip and Gertie passed away in the same year). Losing Gertie at such a young age as her children were adjusting to the teen-age and young adult years profoundly affected each of them and left the family with a tremendous sense of loss. However, Gertie’s legacy of kindness and goodness remains in all of them and they have beautiful memories. She is survived by her 4 children, her 7 grandchildren: Philip, Joshua, Leslie, Andy, Noah, Rachel and Tamar, and her greatgrandchild Bryce Adelman.

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