Gertrude Agnes “Trudy” Tinneny H99
Gertrude Agnes Tinneny was the sixth child and third daughter of James J. Tinneny and Gertrude Ann Spence. She was born on June 30 1918 in the family home on Fowler Street. The physician who delivered her was Dr. Edward Eickman who was the family doctor. Years later she remembered her older sisters Moan and Clare recalling the day of her birth and wondering how doctor Eickman was able to get a baby out of that little black bag that he had brought with him into the house. For Clare and Mona that was one of the mysteries of their youth.
Photo of Gertrude as a child. From Trudy’s photo collection.
Trudy was baptized at Holy Family Church in Philadelphia on July 4, 1918. Her godparents were John Grey and Agnes McKenna Metzinger. Agnes was the daughter of Trudy’s grandmother Margaret Malloy. Her godfather Johnnie Grey was a friend of the family. He later went on to become an Olympic runner. When he was a young boy he had a lung condition. The doctor told him that if he would run it would be good for his health and that was the beginning of his running career. He did, however die of tuberculosis.
Trudy’s mother wanted her baptized June Ann, however her father wanted to name her after her mother and he was the one who took Trudy to church for her christening. He had her baptized Gertrude Agnes. Years later Trudy’s mother told her that she didn’t like Gert or Gerty which were the nick-names that were commonly used for the name Gertrude. As a result her mother called her by the nick-name Trudy and encouraged her to do the same, which Trudy did.
Trudy was raised on Fowler Street and at 240 Gates Street. The Gates Street house was one house down from what now is the parking lot of Holy Family Church. When she was just a couple of years old the family moved to 307 Hermitage Street where they lived until she was about 10 years old. Each of these places was in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. When Trudy was about 10 years old they moved to 462 Gerhardt Street in the Roxborough section of the city. This move caused them to move from Holy Family Parish to Saint John’s Parish.
They then moved to Windover Street where they lived for a short time before moving to a house at 4129 Pechin Street in Roxborough. Sometime after 1939 Trudy and the family moved to a house on Pensdale Street. Thinking back on all of those moves Trudy recalled that several of them were necessary to accommodate the increasing number of children in the family. Years later she had asked her father why he had always rented houses instead of buying one. His response was that he did not want his children fighting over a house when he and Gert were gone as he had seen happen with his parents home.
When they lived on Wendover Street, Trudy’s cousin Frank Sickinger lived in the house next door. Trudy remembered that her father’s sister Kate Tinneny Sickinger, Frank’s mother, would stay at Frank’s house sometimes. During these stays Kate would come and visit her house and during these visits Trudy recalled her Aunt Kate acting kind of peculiar. For instance she said that after meals or refreshments Kate would collect and take with her the cocoa, coffee and tea that was left in the bottom of the cups. She also recalls that her Aunt Kate was a very fragile woman.
Trudy also recalled what turned out to be a scary event that occurred when the family was living on Wendover Street. It seems that one of the neighbors used to expose himself on a regular basis to the nurses going to and come from nearby Roxborough Memorial Hospital. He only engaged in this behavior on rainy nights. On one such night Trudy and her older sister Moan were walking home when Trudy saw the man with the umbrella. She said to Moan “Moan, look at the man he has a balloon.” Moan told her that it wasn’t a balloon that the man with the umbrella had revealed and the two ran home as fast as they could.
They ran into the house and excitedly told their parents what had happened. Their father followed by their mother took off out of the house. A chase ensued through the neighborhood yards until Gert jumped on Jim to stop him from attacking the man who had exposed himself to Trudy and Moan.
As a child Trudy loved to read but she had terrible headaches that interfered with that pastime. Years later the headaches were found to be from a brain tumor, which was diagnosed when she was in her late 20s. In addition to reading, she enjoyed holidays very much. She fondly recalled the 4th of July parades from Holy Family Church. The Tinneny children and all of the other children from the parish would gather in front of the church on Hermitage Street dressed in their 4th of July best. They each had a tin cup on a red, white and blue ribbon around their neck.
Mr. Connolly, who owned a candy store on Ripka Street, was a member of the Fraternal Order of Redmen. He would lead the parade on horseback dressed in full Indian garb, including a “magnificent” full feathered headdress. Trudy was among the others in the parade who would follow him up Hermitage Street to Ridge Avenue then up Ridge Avenue to Harmon Road and down Harmon Road to the Fox Farm where the annual July 4th picnic was held with games, patriotic music and plenty of free lemonade for all.
Photo: Trudy (left) continued to march in the traditional July 4th parade throughout Roxborough well later in life. From Trudy’s photo collection.
Trudy, her sisters and friends enjoyed playing with the full-scale dollhouse that her father had made for her. It was the talk of the neighborhood. To the present day, when people speak of her father Jim’s woodworking skills that doll house is talked about. It was complete in every detail was fully furnished, had a bathtub and even a miniature Christmas tree with all of the trimmings.
Trudy has childhood memories of a Mrs. Fox who played the organ for services at Holy Family Church. Seems that Mrs. Fox had some sort of illness that from time to time caused her to suddenly drift off from playing appropriate music on the church organ to just making noise. Then after awhile she would revert back to playing the proper music as if nothing had ever happened.
Mrs. Fox liked children very much and adopted a boy who was about Trudy’s age. The boy would taunt and tease Trudy at and on the way home from school. She told her brother Joe about the teasing that the Fox boy did and Joe told her that the next time he did it that she should call him a waif. In those days, especially in the Fox boy’s situation that term was viewed as very derogatory.
As was his habit, the boy followed her home from school with the usual taunting. Acting on Joe’s advice she called him a waif. That evening Mrs. Fox came to the Tinneny home complaining very strongly about Trudy’s comments hurting her adopted son. Although Trudy wasn’t punished she was told by her mother not to use words when she didn’t know what they meant.
Growing up, as brothers sometimes do, Trudy’s brothers gave her a rough time. For several years they had her believing that she had a very big nose. They regularly told her that it was big and teased her about it. When they walked by her they would say “Ha Cha Cha” which was the phrase that Jimmy Durante, the American entertainer who was known for his extraordinary large nose, used. They would also tease her by putting a knife or a broom handle in front of their noses when they walked in front of her. Trudy says that it wasn’t until she got out into the working world that she realized that she had a normal nose.
She also recalled an incident when her brother Joe and her father accidentally ripped out her eyebrow. It seems that zippers had just come out and Trudy had one on a new dress. Her eyebrow some how got caught in the zipper and her father and Joe came to her rescue. By the time the ordeal was over they had gotten the dress free and her eyebrow was gone.
Trudy remembered her older sister Moan taking her and her brothers Jack, Joe and Tom to the Empress Theater every Saturday. By the time that she was 6 years old Trudy liked swimming. She would walk to the bathing house at Main and Crescent Streets in Manayunk to swim. Her father, an excellent swimmer himself, frequently took Trudy and the other children to swim in the Schuylkill River for swimming outings.
As a young girl Trudy’s place at the dinning table was next to her mother. On more than one occasion using the terms “go to the devil” or “nuts” at the table got her a quick backhand from her mother.
Trudy remembered going to her Aunt Manny Weir’s house along with her sisters Clare and Moan to take hot baths. She said that the water was heated in pots over the wood- burning stove in the kitchen and carried up stairs. It was then placed in a round metal tub and the girls took their turns bathing in the tub.
From time to time Manny would send Trudy to Berger’s Grocery Store with instructions to buy anything that she wanted. On those occasions Trudy would get a veal loaf and cheese sandwich. Trudy recalled that her mother used to send her to the local store to buy Hamburg Molasses Candy. As a child she and her brother would go to that same store and treat themselves to chocolate covered cherries.
For Trudy as a child, Sundays were filled with church and visits to relatives. After Mass in the morning, the family would have lunch, then Trudy along with her brothers and sisters, would go back to Holy Family to attend Sunday school from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. During that time they would study the Bible. Later, throughout her high school years she attended vespers on Sunday evenings.
After Sunday school, Trudy along with her brothers Jack and Joe would visit the home of her Aunt Maggie Tinneny McKenna. Each Sunday Maggie and her daughter Helen would make one chocolate and one white cake. Trudy recalled how her aunt used to give her a hot piece of cake and a cold glass of milk during these visits.
After a short visit and refreshments Trudy and her brothers would add their cousin Rose, Aunt Maggie’s daughter to their numbers and the cousins would all walk across the river via the bridge at Belmont Avenue and visit the homes of her Aunt Rose Tinneny Yeakle and their Aunt Kate Tinneny Sickinger. On Sundays when she didn’t visit her aunts she and the McCormick kids who lived across the street from the Tinnenys on Gates Street would go into the fields in back of her house and pick daisies when they were in bloom.
As a young girl Trudy remembered many fun filled days when she, her brothers, sisters and neighbor children would ride their bikes and sleds from the top of Fountain Street, where it intersects Ridge Avenue, down to Smick Street. This is a distance of nearly a mile all of which is steeply down hill. Such feats would not be possible today due to vehicle traffic.
The summer that she was 15 years old Trudy didn’t get to do much out doors with her brothers sisters and neighborhood friends. That summer she spent indoors recovering from surgery for appendicitis and a severe bout of phlebitis, which required she stay off of her feet.
Trudy attended Holy Family School for 10 years. During the first 8 years there she completed her elementary education. Her favorite nun was Sister Rose Amata, I.H.M. During the final two years she was trained in commercial subjects. She was 15 years old when she completed her schooling at Holy Family.
Photo: Holy Family School graduation 1934 with Trudy in red circle. From Trudy’s photo collection.
She then went on to Saint John’s High School for the next 2 years where her days were filled with French, Latin and Chemistry. During her school years she developed a love for poetry and became quite accomplished in writing poems.
Trudy graduated from Saint John’s High School in 1936. She applied for a job with the Container Corporation of America, which was located along the canal in Manayunk, but they wouldn’t take her. The reason was that they had a policy against hiring relatives of current employees and Trudy’s brother Jim was already working there. She did, however, find a job with Eastern Waste and Wiper Supply Company in downtown Philadelphia.
Photo taken on graduation day. From Trudy’s photo collection.
The other jobs she had were with Ornamental Iron works, working with claims for the United States Department of Veterans Administration on Wissahicken Avenue in Philadelphia. Next she worked for Strawbridge and Clothier, which was a large department store in center city Philadelphia. She was working there one day, using a pole with a hook on it to get a box down from a top shelf, when she snagged the toupee off her boss’s head. She was so
embarrassed that she didn’t want to go back to work. Her mother said that she didn’t have to go back. At about that time the personnel office of Sears and Roebuck’s called and had her come in for an interview as a result of a job application that she had submitted sometime earlier. As a result of the interview she was hired and worked for Sears and Roebuck’s for several years. During World War II Container Corporation of America called her to work.
About 1943, Trudy met Vincent Joseph “Vinnie” Gallagher. He was the son of Bernard Gallagher and Ann Collins. His father was born in Dunfaglinay, County Donegal, Ireland. Trudy’s mother had encouraged her to go out with “the Gallagher boy”. Vinnie courted Trudy on Friday evenings after work at Striffling’s Tap Room in Roxborough and at the Manayunk Club.
Photo: Trudy and Vinnie in front of the Manayunk Club in Roxborough. Courtesy of Mary Pat Tinneny.
Trudy
joined the Third Order of Dominican nuns and was professed in the order
in 1965. Unlike the regular nuns of the order, those in the Third Order
are called Dominican laity and instead of taking vows when they are
professed make promises. In addition to the promises they have a
religious office to say each day, generally lead religious lives and
meet as a community regularly. Trudy’s group met the third Sunday of
each month during which time they pray, share community life, meet with
their priest spiritual adviser, do good works such as making scapulars
and take up a collection, which they sent to a needy foreign mission.
Trudy, as are the other members of the order, was entitled to be buried
in the religious habit of the Dominican’s. Trudy’s name in the order is
Sister Rose Michael, T.O.P. The TOP stands for Third Order Penance. 
Obituary
