Gertrude Holden

501 East 88th Street
Gertrude Holden
Gertrude Holden

Gertrude Holden and her twin brother, Guerdon Holden, were born on December 9, 1881, the youngest of eight children born to Liberty and Delia Holden. Gertrude attended Miss Mittelberger's School at 1020 Prospect Avenue at East 40th Street.

Gertrude married Thomas Atterbury McGinley at Loch Hame in 1906. The couple moved to Milton, Pennsylvania. They had three children: John, Elizabeth (Bordon), and Gertrude.

Thomas’s father was a close associate of George Westinghouse, the founder of Westinghouse Electric. Thomas’s mother was an heiress of Pittsburgh’s oldest manufacturing families, making a fortune from glass and hardware.

Thomas attended Shadyside Academy, Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and Yale University. Upon graduation from Yale, McGinley joined the Duff Manufacturing Company, which produced industrial jacks. He quickly became President of Duff.

Gertrude and Thomas divorced in 1918. She remarried Peter Jay. a farmer and horse breeder, for more than fifty years. Mr. Jay bred thoroughbred horses and raised beef cattle at a 250-acre farm.

Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Jay was a 1932 graduate of Groton School in Groton, Mass., and earned his bachelor's degree in 1936 from Harvard College, where he had played on the polo team.

Gertrude, the last surviving child of Liberty and Delia Holden, died September 27, 1967, at her home in Milton, Massachusetts. She was buried in Lake View Cemetery.