Gertrude May Black was born January 17th, 1882 near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. As a child she moved with her parents, Caroline and John Wesley Black to Minnesota, eventually settling near the southeastern Marshall County town of Grygla, where they farmed. Gertrude became a schoolteacher and taught at a number of rural schools around northwestern Minnesota.
Gertrude was a religious person all her life. She experienced conversion as a child and soon became active in the Free Methodist Church, where she became a minister. It was through her church work that she met her husband, Samuel La Due (b. 1867), whom she married in June 1907.
The La Dues had been early settlers in Polk County. Samuel's father, Calvin, was a storekeeper and was responsible for naming the town of Fertile, Minnesota, where they lived. Samuel worked for the post office. Gertrude and Samuel lived there after they married and had three children, Mildred (b. November 1909), Ethel, and Milton. In 1923 the family moved to Park Rapids, Minnesota, where Sam took up truck gardening and Gertrude continued to work as a teacher and minister. Sam died in December 1942 at age 75, Gertrude in January 1971, just a few days before her 89th birthday.
The La Dues' eldest daughter, Mildred, married Sidney Mead (1904-1999) in 1929. Not wanting a church wedding, the two elected to elope and then hitchhike to California. They later moved to Chicago and then to Iowa City, where Sidney was a professor of religion at the Universities of Chicago and Iowa. Mildred became a free-lance photographer for Urban Renewal in Chicago. The couple retired to Tuscon, Arizona. Mildred passed away in November 2001.
From the guide to the Gertrude Black La Due and family papers., 1900-1911, 1929-1930., (Minnesota Historical Society)
