Rose Mary was the youngest child of William and Mary
Thornally. She was born May 20, 1877. Rose had four older brothers – Will,
Harry, John and Sam and an older sister Charlotte. Charlotte died in 1899 when
Rose was eleven. Rose appeared on the 1900 census with her family – she was 13
and was listed as Rosie. At that time the family was living at 288 Bray Avenue,
Fruitvale Precinct in the Brooklyn Township. This was before Brooklyn was
annexed into the City of Oakland.
The 1906 Oakland City Directory listed Rose and showed
her occupation as a stenographer. She was 19 years old and already working
outside the home – this would have been unusual at that time. But Rose grew up
in a family of boys who were all working tradesmen. She must have been an
independent woman herself. She continued to work as a stenographer for many
years. The 1910 census tells us that Rose was working for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Six years
later, payroll records for the NorthwesternPacific Railroad Company tell us that she was earning $70 a week working in
the general freight and passenger office.
By December of 1917 her salary had risen to $80 per week. Northwestern
Pacific was a railroad company that serviced northern California. In 1916 in
ran from Sonoma to Somoa - a small town north of Arcata.
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| Northwestern Pacific train at the Santa Rosa Station |
In 1910, Rose was still living with her family at 1707 Fruitvale
Avenue in Oakland. Thomas Brothers Block books for 1914 and 1917 show Rose Thornally as owning a lot within the Thornally Tract, next door to her brother Harry. I don't know if she simply owned the lot or actually lived there. After that she spent
much of her adult life living in San Francisco. In 1919, she was living in a
rooming house run by Ethel F Jackson. That was at 1040 Bush Street. The 1920
census listed 102 other women including Rose living at the same address. By 1926,
Rose had moved again but was still in San Francisco and living at 2230 Pacific
Avenue. When the 1930 census was taken Rose was living at 634 Powell also in
San Francisco.
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| This house occupies the lot at 1650 35th Avenue that Rose owned. It was part of the Thornally Tract. |
When Rose was in her 20s her name appeared in the Oakland
Tribune and the San Francisco Call newspaper’s Society columns when she
attended engagement parties and weddings of her personal friends Gertrude
Frost, Maude Kuester, and Ellen Desmond Valentine.
At some point between 1930 and 1935 Rose started working
for her cousins the Ogilvie Sisters and moved to New York City. Rose’s mother
Mary McGowan had a sister Catherine who had immigrated to the United States
shortly before Mary. Catherine married John Ogilvie and they had seven
daughters and one son. All of the sisters – Elizabeth, Anne, Mary Gladys,
Jessica, Clara, Mable, and Georgiana as well as their brother William were
actively involved in founding and running a very successful cosmetics business.
The company was based in New York City and Paris, France. Ogilvie products
still exist in 2016 – a hair conditioner for straightening hair. One can
purchase an Ogilvie conditioning treatment from Amazon for $10.99. The Ogilvie
sisters also developed, produced and sold hair coloring products, shampoos and
home permanents. In the 1920s, they had patents for dry and oily hair tonics, a
tonic for whitening gray hair, a freckle lotion, blackhead lotion, wave lotion,
scalp pomade and Henna shampoo powder.
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| An Ogilvie sisters ad found on Google |
According to the book “War Paint – Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden” in
the early years the Ogilvie sisters rented salon space from Elizabeth Arden but
after having a disagreement with Miss Arden they left. Later the Ogilvie
Sisters “were the first importers of European pharmacist Eugene Schueller’s
innovative hair dye called L’Oreal Compound Henna.” In War Paint the author refers to the Ogilvie Sisters as “an enterprising
group of young women … two were skilled hairdressers already making a name for
themselves in New York”.
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| Castile soap - an Ogilvie sisters product |
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| This book, published in 2011, mentions the Ogilvie Sisters |
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| The Allerton House where Rose lived in the 1960s. |
In 1937, Rose accompanied Gladys Ogilvie on a trip to
Europe. They travelled on the Queen Mary to Southampton, England on May 10th
and returned to New York on June 23rd. On another trip they sailed on a ship called Paris from Le Havre, France to New York.
The ships passenger list noted that when they returned to New York they would
be staying at 399 Park Avenue, which is very close to where Rose and her
cousins were living at that time.
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| A menu from the Queen Mary provided by Ann Brurud, Rose's neice |
In 1935, Rose was living with her cousins in an apartment
building at 375 Park Avenue. They were at the same location when the 1940
census was taken. Rose listed her profession as the accountant for the Ogilvie
Beauty Salon. Her cousin Anne was the company manager, Mabel the assistant
manager, Jessica was the executive for merchandising, Clara was the executive
of manufacturing, and Gladys was an instructor. The household included two
servants Mary Puzzeller and Eana Helbig. In 1935 it is hard to imagine a more
glamorous or exciting place to be working. Even today women executives are
comparatively rare. Though Ann’s husband John was identified as the general
manager these women each held positions of power and authority. They were
running a multi-national corporation. It is no wonder that my mother spoke of
Rose with a sense of awe.
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| Dining on the Queen Mary. Rose in the middle, Gladys Ogilvie left and Marion Forcada, a friend of Rose's, right, 1937 |
Like many other American businesses The Ogilvie Sisters Company
went through a number of mergers and acquisitions. In 1956 the business was
acquired by Lehn & Fink Products Corporation, which was purchased by
Sterling Drug, Inc. in 1966, and Eastman Kodak in 1988. That version of the
company was renamed L&F Products in 1990. In 1994 L&F was acquired by
Reckitt & Colman Ltd. which was purchased by Playtex in 1998, and in 1999
Playtex merged with Reckitt Benckiser.
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| Sue Tucker found this fabulous photo of the Ogilivie sisters |
Anne Ogilvie died June 27, 1942. She was buried in the
Gate of Heaven Cemetery in New York. Sometime after that Rose married Anne’s
widowed husband John `Jack’ Curry. That was probably in the mid to late 1940s. So
far, I have not been able to find a marriage record that would provide the exact
date and place where Rose and Jack were married. Rose would have been in her
mid to late 50s when she married for the first time. Were she and Jack secretly
in love since the 30s or was this a marriage of convenience? I suspect the latter, but we may never know
for sure.
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| Rose during a family visit |
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| Rose visiting with her niece Dee Thornally Martin |
I remember visiting Rose with my mother Lottie in the
mid-1970s, when Rose was living in a retirement home in Berkeley called Grandma’s.
In 2016 the building is named the Rose Garden Inn and is located at 2740
Telegraph. I don’t really have any personal recollections of Rose but I do
recall that my mother held Rose in high regard. Mom considered Rose to be – as
Mom would say, “A classy lady”.
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| Rose was living here on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in the 1970s shortly before she died. |
She died a few years later on Christmas day in 1977 – 22 years
after her only living sibling John had died. Rose is buried along with her
brothers and other Thornally family members in Mountain View Cemetery in
Oakland. Her father, mother and sister Charlotte are buried at Evergreen
Cemetery in East Oakland.
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| This is the book written by the Ogilvie Sisters |
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| Rose's headstone in Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery |
