Gehrig, Christina, 1881-1954

Christina Facke was born in 1881 in Wiltser, Schleswig-Holstein, a province of pre-World War I Germany, near the German-Danish border. She emigrated to the United States in 1899. Christina met Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig, who was fourteen years older, in New York, New York.

New York County marriage license #21047 shows wedding date for Henry Gehrig as Nov 27, 1901.

The Gehrigs had four children, but only the second-born survived past infancy. This baby was born on the evening of June 19, 1903, inside the family's apartment on Manhattan's upper east side at 309 East 94th Street in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan. The baby was named Heinrich Ludwig after his father. Americanized, his name was Henry Louis, or simply "Lou." When Lou was five years old the Gehrigs moved from Yorkville to Washington Heights. In 1910 the family lived at 2266 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights. In 1920 the family resided on 8th Avenue in Manhattan. At home, the family spoke German.

Christina worked as a cook in a fraternity at Columbia University, where she became aquainted with Bobby Watt, Columbia's graduate manager of athletics who helped secure Lou a football scholarship to the school.

Christina's realtionship with her daughter-in-law Eleanor was a constant source of tension and the two frequently fought even after her son's death. Christina had broken up several of Lou's past relationships.

She died on December 3, 1954 in Milford, New Haven County, Connecticut.