Gertrude Janeway


Gertrude Janeway was one of the last surviving widows of a Union Civil War veteran.

Life

Gertrude Grubb was born in Blaine, Tennessee and courted by John Janeway beginning when she was 16. Her mother, widowed when Gertrude was only 13, would not allow her to marry until she was 18. She married John Janeway, an officer in the 14th Illinois Cavalry, in 1927 when she was 18 and he 81. The marriage ceremony took place in the middle of a dirt road with family and friends in attendance. They lived together in a log cabin in Blaine, Tennessee, until John Janeway's death in 1937.

Pension

She was a member of the Green Acres Missionary Baptist Church. Gertrude continued to live in the cabin for nearly 70 years after her husband's death. She received a $70 pension check for veterans' benefits from the government every two months until her death in 2003.
On April 9, 2011, The Economist commented on her as an example of the length of pension obligations: