What became of Mary Gertrude Stewart?

[Rosinish]

Loving this thread, it's like reading a good book!!!

Now there's an idea 

Annie

[shellyesq]

Joseph is on the Birmingham obituary index - http://bpldb.bplonline.org/db/obituaries  Probably won't mention Constance one way or the other, but just in case.

[Erato]

Yes, I saw that later marriage in Indiana.  Joseph was a student in Fulton County, Georgia on his WWI draft registration.  I'm guessing that means Georgia Tech but I haven't found any documentation of him there.

I think they hurriedly married in 1917 and then Joseph got drafted or signed up and Constance went off to medical school where she met Joseph Clyde Bruner and things just took their natural course so she divorced Vann.  Or could it have been some kind of marriage of convenience??  Constance married Bruner in Boston on 23 June 1920 and she used the surname Stoddard.

As for Gertrude and Mr. Jones, I haven't found any record of the marriage but there is a very lengthy document among the Alabama probate records detailing how Gertrude's property was split up.  She had considerable property and money in Alabama, Massachusetts and New Jersey.  In that document, Charles Jones figures as Gertrude's husband and he was accepted as such by Constance and Bertrand so I am assuming they really did get married at some point after the unfortunate incident in New Orleans.

[Erato]

I think this is J.W. Vann's grave.  The birth date matches the draft registration.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01j5i/

[shellyesq]

Constance & Mr. Vann don't seem to show up in the Madison Co., Alabama marriage licenses - http://mcrc.madisoncountyal.gov/mcrc/searchmarriage.shtml - or other online Alabama marriages.  Maybe they went elsewhere, but they were both listed as single and not living together in the 1920 census.  I wonder if she claimed to be single when marrying Mr. Bruner.

I think a lot of these states also had common law marriage in those days, so people could be legally married without the actual marriage certificate. 

[Erato]

Is it possible that Tulane or its medical school did not accept unmarried women in 1917?  So she faked a marriage?

[Erato]

Even though it looks like Constance did not complete her studies at Tulane, she was still a real pioneer.

"In 1917, Dr. Linda Coleman achieved dual "firsts": the first female to graduate from Tulane School of Medicine and the first woman to graduate medical school in Louisiana."

http://tmaa.tulane.edu/s/1586/medical/index.aspx?sid=1586&gid=6&pgid=1360

[shellyesq]

There's a reference to Mrs. William Vann, Student Assistant in Anatomy, right below Joseph Clyde Bruner - http://www.archive.org/stream/register06univgoog/register06univgoog_djvu.txt

[Erato]

"I wonder if she claimed to be single when marrying Mr. Bruner."

It was claimed to be a first marriage for both of them.