GatheringGardiners: Elaine Mary Scholl 1925-1960

Elaine Mary Scholl was born in Los Angeles, California on April 28, 1925 to George and Emma Scholl. Elaine’s father, George, grew up on a farm in Arago, Nebraska before moving to Oregon and finally to Southern California in 1913. He worked for a while in San Diego and then in the 30s and 40s as a motion picture studio carpenter in the Los Angeles area. He built his own home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles at 1636 Golden Gate Ave. where Elaine was born. Elaine’s mother, Emma, was from Eden, Utah. She taught elementary school for a couple of years and worked as a bookkeeper before her marriage. Elaine grew up with her sister, Audrey, who was eight years older. During the Great Depression, the Scholl’s rented their larger home at Golden Gate Ave. for $75 a month and lived in smaller homes for about $20 to $30 a month. In 1938, towards the end of the Depression, they moved back into their home. Elaine graduated from John Marshall High School in 1942 and attended Angles City College for one year. Religion was important to the Scholl family. George attended the Presbyterian Church, and Emma and the two girls attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elaine was 16 years old, when the United States entered World War II after the attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When Elaine was 17 she met James Hulet Gardiner (Jim) at a church activity. Jim was from Malta, Idaho and was working for Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, California assembling aircraft. Jim and Elaine were married May 19, 1943 in the Salt Lake Temple, 21 days after her 18th birthday. Soon after their marriage, Jim was drafted into the U.S. Navy. After basic training, he was assigned as a radar electronics instructor on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. During part of this time Elaine lived with her parents in Los Angeles and part of it she was in San Francisco with Jim. While in Los Angeles, Elaine’s first child, Kent, was born in the very same room at Golden Gate Ave. that Elaine was born in 21 years earlier. After the war ended, the family moved to Providence, Utah, where Jim attended the Agricultural College in Logan, Utah using the GI bill which paid his tuition and a cost of living stipend. In August of 1948, Elaine gave birth to her second child, Sandra, at Emma’s Utah home in Farmington, Utah. Following Jim’s graduation with a master’s degree in sociology, the growing family moved to Southern California.

Jim first worked for Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, then for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in Burbank as an electronics technician. The small family lived at Elaine’s parent’s Golden Gate home for a couple of years . While and while living thereMark joined the family during this time was born. In 1950 they bought a home at 914 N. Isabel in Glendale, California. While living there Janice, Gayle, Jeffrey and Julie were born. Needing more room, they moved to 1366 Cleveland Road in Glendale in 1959.

Home and family is where Elaine found her passion. Her daughter Sandra Gardiner Blunck recalls;, "In 1950 our family included Mother, Dad and three children. That was the year we moved to 914 N. Isabel in Glendale, California. The home was a wonderful 3-bedroom house with hardwood floors on a quiet street with a small grocery store on the corner. The backyard was large and fenced with a garage in the back and a big cement area. It was a great location and climate in which to raise children.

"The education of her children was important to Mother. She would quiz us on our spelling words before school, while she fed the baby in the high chair. Then we took took our lunch boxes and walked to R. D. White Elementary School. When I was in the second grade I remember having an arithmetic assignment that I needed help with. On a Sunday evening, Mother took a few magazines and me, and we sat together and cut out pictures and glued them in my booklet. Then I wrote in what measurement each illustrated.

“Mother loved family picnics, and trips to the park or zoo with the children. These often included Aunt Audrey and her family. With plenty of food, and Mother’s picnic tablecloth, off we went to Verdugo Park, Griffith Park, the beach, or the zoo (all free). When we visited the beach, Dad would get out the umbrella and mother would make tuna fish sandwiches.”

Kent recalls;, “ Like most boys I adored my mother. She taught me, loved me, and sometimes protected me. One time Dad asked me to mow the front lawn with the hand mower. There was a baseball bat sitting in the middle of the law. I reached down, picked up the bat, and tossed it. The bat flipped end over end all the way across the lawn finally crashing through the window of the Baldauff’s next door new car next door. I ran into the house and told Mom. In a few minutes when the neighbor came knocking on the door, Mom answered with me hiding behind her skirt. Mom calmed things down and I worked to pay for the window.”

Elaine was a creative person. In high school she learned to sew and made many of her own clothes, including her wedding dress, dresses for her girls, Halloween costumes and items for the home. She and Jim enjoyed developing and printing black and white photos of their family. They put the children to bed, put a sheet of red plastic over the light in the kitchen, set up the enlarger and chemical trays and went to work. The next morning they would show the children the pictures they had printed. Elaine carefully put the photos into each child’s photo album.

After the birth of her seventh child Elaine did not feel well. The doctor’s eventually found extensive cancer and in 1960 she died at the age of 35. Her example of faith and love will always be remembered. She is buried in the Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, California.

Jim was left with seven children from one to fourteen years of age. A little over a year later he married Irene Carol Thomsen who took on the job of raising Elaine’s seven children. Carol added one more to the family when, James T. was born in 1964 to the family. (Sandra Ann Gardiner Blunck May 3, 2020)

Elaine Scholl full history

Elaine is an Honor Bee

Elaine's clothing and jewelry

Elaine Videos

Documents related to Elaine Mary Scholl:

1925 Elaine Mary Scholl birth record 28 April, California County Birth records image 2833

This is the back bedroom, sometimes called the "sun room" at 1636
Golden Gate Avenue LA, CA, where Elaine and her first son Kent were born.

1929 LtR Elaine with Fern, Stanley
who are neighbor children

1928 LtoR George, Elaine, Emma and Audrey in front of their 1636 Golden
Gate home getting ready to go to Oregon, 1928

1928, Portland

1928, Elaine with her grandfather Frederick
Scholl

1930 US Census, Los Angeles, CA

1933 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints baptism and confirmation certificate for Elaine

1936 Elaine Scholl

From 1935 to 1949 Bill Reese worked for the Disney Studio. From 1938 to 1942 Elaine went to John Marshall High School. Of course Elaine didn't know it but Bill Reese, the father of her future daughter, Gayle's future husband, John Reese, worked just down the hill from John Marshall High School. Here is how close they were:

Original Walt Disney Studio circa 1930 in Silverlake.
Located on the corner of Hyperion Ave. and Griffith Park Blvd.
Marshall High School can be seen in the background.