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His duration was longer than others because the Engineers who were sent to Vladivostock weren't called home until 1920. He didn't want to return to highschool, so he took a crash course in accounting at St. Mary's College. While there he was scouted by the New York Yankees and offered $60 a month and room and board with a farm team, but he accepted $90 a month for a job as teller with the Bank of Northern California in Redding.
Gladys Emelie Cunningham was born at the Kingsbury homestead in Igo on December 23, 1898. Her mother, Charlotte Kingsbury Cunningham had been a teacher. Her father, Charles Cunningham was working as an accountant at Iron Mountain Mine when he suffered a heart attack. Her four-year-old brother, Charles went to live with his grandparents, but Gladys and her mother boarded in Anderson where Charlotte resumed teaching.
After her mother was elected County Superintendent of Schools, Gladys graduated from Shasta High in Redding and then San Francisco State Normal School. Her college studies were interrupted several times when her mother called her home to substitute for teachers in an emergency.
Gladys was teaching at Little Pine School when she and Lee were married, October 12, 1921. They soon moved to Cottonwood and Lee joined his father and brother in the family general store. They had two children:
Charlotte Bernard b. 1922 Teacher m. Robert E. Henry
Marjorie Lee b. 1924 m. Col. William G. Williamson
In 1931, Lee left the store and the family moved to Redding when Governor James Rolphe appointed Lee, State Right-of-Way Agent for District 2 of the State Division of Highways. The district extended from the western mountains to Nevada and from Tehama County to the Oregon border. This job entailed an average 1000 miles of travel per week, meeting property owners to hammer out details of contracts for realigning the Hiway around Shasta Lake or straightening sections of the Lassen Loop or just getting the Hiway into Dorris.
The constant separations and other problems caused a divorce in 1937 and Lee had three later marriages (no children). Lee was promoted to the State Office in San Francisco, but unhappy with city life, he eventually came home to work in local Title Offices. Until his death, March 24, 1971, he felt a sense of achievement on the highways of Northern California.
Gladys returned to teaching--three years at Grant School and the final twenty-two of her thirty years as a teacher at Cypress and Manzanita Schools in Redding.
Her daughters both married but her mother lived with Gladys after the death of her son in the Philippines in WWII. Since she loved children, Gladys truly enjoyed her five grandchildren and the two of her great-grandchildren who were born before her death July 23, 1981.
Source: Shasta Historical Society - February 1995
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