4A.  Raymond Cecil Gilbert was born in Byron Center, Kent Counry, Michigan, on Thursday, March 13, 1902, and died in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on August 19, 1967. He died of congestive heart failure following a heart attack. Thelma Letha Perrine was born in Holland, Michigan, on Friday, June 23, 1905, and died in Kalamazoo on March 25, 1996. They were married in Saginaw, Michigan, on Saturday, April 17, 1926. She took the name Thelma Perrine Gilbert. He is the son of Walter Joshua and Primrose (Judson) Gilbert. She is the daughter of Henry Herbert and Blanche Orilla (Haynor) Perrine. They had three children:

Ray and Thelma Gilbert ~1949

Ray Gilbert graduated from Western Michigan College in Kalamazoo in 1925. Thelma graduated from Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University), taught one year, met Ray, and left her career to marry and raise a family. They moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where Ray had found a job teaching Manual Training: drafting in one semester and wood shop in the next. Unfortunately they were just starting their family when the Depression began.

They lived about four different houses in the Birmingham area, and for a while lived on a chicken farm where they had about 1000 white leghorns, a cow, several bee hives and a pecan tree. They might not have had much money but they ate well. There was always chicken and eggs. They made their own butter with young Raymond often being designated to crank the churn. During this time, Ray's parents, Walter and Rose, came to live with them from Michigan since Walter could not find work. He found no work in Alabama, either. However, he did build a shed for the cow from uncemented field stones. They soon returned to Michigan.

Ray had been in the National Guard and the First Cavalry Division of the Army Reserves for a long time. In 1936, after 11 years of teaching school, he and the family left Alabama so he could be the Mess Officer in a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in northern Tennessee near Jamestown. After a few months, they moved to another CCC camp near Crossville where he was the Commanding Officer. In about 1939, the family returned to Kalamazoo and lived at 722 Hawley Street with Ray's parents.

Altho he was over age, Ray very much wanted to be on active duty in the Army in the war he knew the U.S. would eventually be involved in. He wheedled and cajoled and finally got his wish on December 2, 1941, when he was returned to active duty and sent to Fort Knox (his serial number was 0276211). The rest of the family returned to Kalamazoo where they lived with Ray's parents. By now the horses of the cavalry had given way to tanks. Ray spent most of the war years training young men in the art of tank warfare. He was stationed at Fort Knox and Camp Campbell until the Army finally agreed to send him to Japan. His ship was four days out of San Francisco when Japan surrendered (August 14, 1945) and he went on to be in the Army of Occupation in Japan under General MacArthur, whom he always referred to as "that arrogant s.o.b.". He spent nine months in Japan and was prominent in the reconstruction effort.

Ray's men revered him because he was fair and because he was always willing to do anything that he commanded them to do, such as taking long hikes with full packs. However, he had a bad heart and suffered several heart attacks while in Japan. He was returned to the U.S. about May, 1946, on a medical disability. Back in Michigan, he was made Commanding Officer of a unit at Fort Custer near Battle Creek. He was on active duty for a total of 55 months (thru July, 1946) and earned 70 points. Ray held the rank of Captain until April 1, 1962, when he was promoted to Major; he received his honorable discharge three days later on April 4th. His heart condition was determined to be "service incurred" and he was eligible for a monthly disability check for the rest of his life.

In 1945 Ray's parents moved to a house their son, Truman, built for them attached to his house. Thelma and the children moved into the first floor of a house at 617 West Walnut street near Central High School. After his return, while serving at Fort Custer, Ray and his brother bought a barracks unit and dismantled it for the lumber. Ray used his half to build a house on 1005 Lum Avenue in Kalamazoo. Ray, Thelma, and their two sons moved into it before it was totally completed; Jackie was living in Carson City, Michigan.

Thelma P. Gilbert

During the war, Thelma worked at Gilmore Brothers, the department store in Kalamazoo, in the ladies ready-to-wear department. She was an excellent seamstress and worked briefly for a tailor who lived next door. A year or two after Ray returned from Japan, she took a job as a meat cutter at the Town and County Market; she worked there many years.

Ray tried to work after his discharge but his heart slowed him down. The fact that he tried to work in construction didn't help matters. During this time of national anxiety about a nuclear attack, he tried to establish a business building fallout shelters but was not successful.

Ray and Thelma would go north in Michigan deer hunting almost every year, usually with his brother and his wife and perhaps a few friends. They seldom got a deer but a good time was had by all. Ray also loved fishing, and playing poker. In later years, he learned leather tooling and made many gifts and other items.

The family had a small summer cottage on Fish Lake, west of Kalamazoo past the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery. As its name implied, it was a good fishing lake and Ray often provided fresh fish for dinner. One Sunday in August, 1967, while at the cottage, Ray suffered another heart attack. He was taken to Borgess Hospital where he died a week later.

Thelma lived in the Lum Avenue house for a few more years until the maintenance and yard work were too much for her. She then sold the house and car and moved to Regency Square Apartments down the hall from her daughter, Jackie, and granddaughter, Denise. She got her first cat there. After a few years, the three of them moved to a house at 3027 Pasadena Drive in the Milwood neighborhood of Kalamazoo. Her progressive disability from congestive heart failure prompted a move to a nursing home. Here she made it clear to her correspondents that she would welcome the ultimate release from her pain and infirmity.

• Personal knowledge and interviews with immediate family
• Social Security Death Records; Ray: 378-14-9737; Thelma: 379-12-6800