Gossip! News! Fame & Infamy!

by Leslie Ryan

DGS 2022 Writing Contest Submission: Your family’s black sheep

One of the reasons I began researching my family tree was to find out if I was related to anyone famous.I admit, I was hoping to be related to somebody, especially since I have not had any past-life-regressions to find myself as Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen of Ireland, or Calamity Jane of the Wild West. Sadly, my biggest claim to fame for years was being descended from a busted cigarette smuggler (who was fined and had to pay the taxes due).

But my research led me to an international scandal involving two secretaries, sports stars, a very rich man, and a secret marriage! Pull up a chair and let’s talk about Grandaunt Gladys Myrtle Dow.

Gladys was born in December 1895 in New London, CT. She was the daughter of a ne’er-do-well streetcar conductor and a second-generation American whose grandparents were from Roscommon, Ireland.¹ Gladys’s father deserted his family of six children in 1911 for a younger woman, but this is not the “scandal” of our story today!

Gladys lived with her aunt Minnie Dow Murphy and her husband in New York City in 1920² (she was mislabeled as their daughter), and then in Detroit in 1930³. She was a secretary.

In 1940⁴ “Gladys Dow” was the single head of household living with her Aunt Minnie, who had been widowed. Their address was 112 Edison (pictured at left from Google.com), valued at $18,000 ($381,000 in 2022 money). Gladys was the owner and no longer a secretary. Where did Grandaunt Gladys get all the money to buy this house, you may well ask? Well, I was curious!

Fast forward to the 1950s. Grandaunt Gladys was living the high life, in a hotel, in Detroit, Michigan. With servants. My newlywed mother remembers being dazzled by the crystal, the furnishings, and the locale when my father took her there to meet his aunt. It was the first time a butler ever had asked her what kind of cocktail she would like to have, and she was unable to speak to answer!

The family had always been pretty mum about what was going on with Grandaunt Gladys. We knew she was a secretary for a man named Jerry Utley. Maybe they were married. Maybe they were not. She was buried as “Gladys Utley.” So who was Jerry Utley of Detroit? Here’s where the story starts to get good!

Turns out, Jerry Utley was the principal of Jerome A. Utley Construction in Detroit, one of the builders of the General Motors facilities there. Note the plural. Facilities. He even has his own Wikipedia page⁵ which says in part, “Jerome Adams ‘Jerry’ Utley (January 7, 1881 – April 24, 1959) was an American baseball player and coach, contracting engineer, hotelier and boxing promoter … Utley had a successful career as a contracting engineer on building projects in Detroit ... he had an ownership interest in the Hotel Playa Ensenada, later renamed the Hotel Riviera del Pacífico, a luxury hotel in Baja California, Mexico. He also briefly had a partnership with Jack Dempsey as a boxing promoter which included promoting the 1933 heavyweight championship match between Max Schmeling and Max Baer.”

The Hotel Playa Ensenada (and Casino) was built in 1929-30 just seventy-five miles south of San Diego, California. You remember what was happening in the US in 1929? Prohibition! Mexico in the 1920s was just coming out of its revolution. The government of Mexico was very interested in attracting capital. Rich Americans were very interested in drinking and gambling, both of which were legal in Baja California. The stars aligned. Literally.

From the San Diego History Center⁷:

“The hotel was inaugurated on Halloween night, October 31, 1930. Those who came would remember the occasion as long as they lived. It was a formal affair — Xavier Cugat’s band played, [Bing Crosby performed] the Hollywood crowd, the beautiful people, were all there. But, the real star of the night was the building itself. The Spanish interiors, so much in vogue at the time, were plush and elegant. All the ornaments had been brought from around the world… The interior decoration boasted Persian rugs, Chinese commodes and a select assembly of Spanish furniture. Rich tapestries hung on the walls, and a grand piano dominated the huge lobby that had the Pacific Ocean for a front yard. The ceilings and many walls were painted with murals by Alfredo Ramos Martínez, a fine Mexican artist whose work caused great admiration. The total cost, according to the San Diego Union of November 1, 1930, was $2,000,000.”

$2 million in 1930 money is worth about $35,482,155.69 today!

Jack Dempsey, the boxer, was one of the original investors and one of the main draws to the property. But, for whatever reason, he left the project in 1931. Jerome Utley became the new investor, but his timing was terrible. Prohibition in the US ended in 1933.With the coming of World War II, the hotel closed in 1939 and was occupied by the Mexican armed forces off and on until 1945, protecting the coast from invasion by Japan.

When the war ended, Utley decided to reopen the hotel. Several different sources stated that he was a “70 year old bachelor, very much in love” and in 1948 decided to give the hotel to his “beloved, Marjorie King Plant, an attractive blond woman in her early forties.”⁸

There is a fabulous Facebook page for the Hotel Playa Ensenada with lots of historical pictures and references. There, I found a clip of “movie star” Marjorie King “bailando” (dancing) in 1936 in a Belgian film before she married Mr. Plant, and before she met Jerry Utley. The picture is from the short clip there of this femme fatale.⁹

At that time, foreigners could not own property in Mexico, apparently, the ownership structure wherein Uncle Jerry was the majority holder was exempt or grandfathered from this rule.

Marjorie wisely consulted with an attorney, who advised her that the only way she could own the property was to marry a Mexican, and then volunteered his services. She accepted. The hotel’s Facebook page cites her business savvy. They also posit that she is the source of the name for the Margarita cocktail. Their Mexican marriage license can be seen at Ancestry.com.

Sadly, true love did not win out. Jerry discovered at some point that Marjorie’s arrangement with the Mexican lawyer was no longer just a marriage of convenience. He sued Marjorie, and lost. She kept the hotel until 1950.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (mansion) in Detroit, while all of this intrigue and romance was going on in Ensenada, was Grandaunt Gladys. What must she have been thinking about all of this?

Gladys’s mother, Agnes Carroll Dow, died in 1957. “Gladys Dow” of New London, Connecticut, was listed in the obituary as a survivor.¹⁰

Jerome Utley died in 1959. Grandaunt Gladys was listed as his surviving wife (!) in the obituary in the Detroit Free Press.¹¹ This is the first record we have that he had married Gladys! A second notice published the next day further identified her as “Gladys Dow Utley.”

The Detroit Free Press on April 28, 1959 published an article about Utley’s will.¹² They reported his secretary, a Miss Frances Cooper, was getting a fortunein cash and land, part ownership in the construction company, one fourth of the Mexican hotel company, and Grandaunt Gladys only got $500!

Wait, the story gets better! The Dow family wasted no time in contesting this will, and in June, they were successful. The headlines read, “Mrs. Gladys Dow Utley, of the Whittier Hotel, now becomes the sole heir to the estate, estimated at more than $500,000.00.”¹³

We also learned that the First Congregational Church was to get half of the estate, and NOT the University of Michigan as cited in the prior article. The will was tossed out. And Grandaunt Gladys inherited everything. Most importantly, the last line of the article mentioned that they were married in 1926. Finally! A clue!

I found their marriage license in Lucas County, Ohio, which is just down the road from Detroit. They said they were residents of Chicago, Illinois, and I love the notation “Do Not Publish” in the upper left-hand corner. He was 45, and she was 28. Don’t forget, she still listed herself on the censuses for 1930 and 1940 as single!¹⁴

These newspaper articles also confirmed my mother’s story about the swanky hotel, as it mentions that Gladys was living at The Whittier Hotel. From a website about the history of Detroit:

“The former Whittier Hotel on the riverfront is a microcosm of Detroit’s renaissance: a beautiful old building being brought back to life, but with a few complications … The Whittier was an apartment hotel, mixing guests and permanent residents. For over 40 years, it was one of the swankiest hotels outside of downtown, drawing people to the riverfront for events like the Gold Cup boat races. Notable guests included actress Mae West, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and The Rolling Stones.” ¹⁵

The day after the will was voided, Miss Cooper got fired from the Utley Construction Co. Of course, she filed a lawsuit trying to get her briefly held fortune back from the wife she claimed she knew nothing about. The First Congregational Church also filed a suit to get their half of the estate back.

Is it really possible neither of these women knew about each other for three decades? Miss Cooper began working for Jerry Utley in 1928, two years after he had married Gladys. In secret. In Ohio. Did she know what was going on in Ensenada? Was she in on that Marjorie King Plant romance? Did he promise her the fortune to keep that quiet?

One year later, Miss Cooper’s lawsuit was dropped, per another article in the Detroit Free Press published on July 6, 1960. The Dow family had made a settlement offer which was accepted. The secretary settled out of court, but The First Congregational Church of Detroit took their case all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court (UTLEY v. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Utley v. Congregational Church, 368 Mich. 90, 117 N.W.2d 141 {Mich. 1962}), and they ultimately won in 1962. They ruled that just because Miss Cooper, the secretary, had settled with the Dow family, as she was the executrix of Jerome Utley’s estate, she had the responsibility to fight for the will as written for all of the beneficiaries (the estate was footing the bill, after all). Poor Grandaunt Gladys was now, relatively, poor.

Gladys Myrtle Dow Utley died on April 30, 1964, and her obituary was published in The Detroit Free Press on May 1st. She was buried in Connecticut. I have not yet been able to find any probate records for her estate in either Connecticut or Michigan, so I don’t know what happened to the mansion on Edison Street in Detroit, or the 640-acre farm in Luzerne, Michigan. Her last known address was 125 Lower Blvd. in New London, which is a nice big lot right in the heart of town. I hope she enjoyed the luxuries she had during her strange relationship and was comfortable in her remaining years.

Can the same be said for (literally) poor Miss Cooper? Only her family or genealogist knows.

Who knew this kind of excitement could happen in real life? And if I hadn’t been curious about my family history I never would have known about this tale of international intrigue, mistresses, gambling, and fortunes made and lost! I haven’t found any pirate queens yet, but I’m going to keep looking.

SOURCES

¹ Year: 1900; Census Place: Essex, Middlesex, Connecticut; Roll: 141; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 0275; FHL microfilm: 1240141. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

² Year: 1920; Census Place: Manhattan Assembly District 7, New York, New York; Roll: T625_1197; Page: 28B; Enumeration District: 536. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).

³ Year: 1930; Census Place: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; Page: 16A; Enumeration District: 0029; FHL microfilm: 2340767. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

⁴ Year: 1940; Census Place: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: m-t0627-01842; Page: 62A; Enumeration District: 84-100. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

⁵ Website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Utley last accessed 8/28/22

⁶ Website picture from https://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajafever/rivieraensenada last accessed 8/28/22

⁷ Website https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1983/april/riviera/ last accessed 8/28/22

⁸ Website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Utley last accessed 8/28/22

⁹ Website https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=2402979793126159 Facebook site for Playa Ensenada. Movie clip (Belgian film in French, <J’ai gagné un million> or I Made a Million from 1936. Length: 36 Minutes Directed by: Og Calster issued by Bruxelles-Films) last accessed 8/28/22

¹⁰ Fort Lauderdale News; Publication Date: 14 Apr 1957; Publication Place: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/230287477/?article=c18c5335-f2d6-4918-ba7d-49216749c7da&focus=0.2750319,0.30862573,0.38848862,0.4262098&xid=3355. Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2019.

¹¹ Website https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20856376/jerome_utley_will_contested_wife/?xid=637. Newspapers.com – Detroit Free Press – 03 Jun 1959, Wed Detroit, Michigan Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan

¹² Newspapers.com website https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20856242/jerome_a_utley_obit/?xid=637. Detroit Free Press – 25 Apr 1959, Sat Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan

¹³ Newspapers.com website https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20856376/jerome_utley_will_contested_wife/?xid=637. Detroit Free Press – 03 Jun 1959, Wed Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan

¹⁴ Ancestry.com. Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Marriage Records. Ohio Marriages. Various Ohio County Courthouses.

¹⁵ Website http://www.detroiturbex.com/content/downtown/whittier/index.html last accessed 8/28/22

©2022 Leslie Ryan
Published by Dallas Genealogical Society with the author’s permission