Pattillo Thornally Ancestors: Maude Pattillo 1893 - 1978 My Grandaunt on My Father's Side

Maude with friends in Los Angeles Park 1910

Note: This post was written jointly with Maude's granddaughter Joyce Tucker Modugno.

Maude Pattillo is the last in this series of the children of James William Pattillo and his wife Carrie Brooks Stover. Maude was the twin of Ruby but her life was much different from Ruby’s life. She was born on March 25, 1893, in Los Angeles, California. She and Ruby had three older siblings Jo, Mary, and Lewis and a younger brother Elmer. Biographies for each sibling can be found on this blog.

Maude attended the Girls Collegiate School and graduated from Manual Arts High School, so she stayed in school longer than some of her siblings. On February 15, 1907, Maude was invited to attend a recital given by Miss Mamie Adamson. This was a large event written about in the Los Angeles Herald newspaper.

Maude as a young girl

After graduating from high school Maude took a job as the “Gold Cashier” at Bullock’s Department Store in downtown Los Angeles. Her job was to calculate the exchange value for certified gold nuggets or dust and pay out cash for store purchases. Sounds like an interesting position. I believe that was the only time she worked outside the home.

Two years after completing high school Maude married Otto William Baty on September 4, 1912. Maude was nineteen and Otto was twenty. Otto was the son of William Rosecrans Baty (1859-1954) and Lillian “Lily” Elizabeth Schawm (1870-1932). He was born in Iowa on June 25, 1892. When they were first married, they were living in Los Angeles with Maude’s parents but when the 1920 census was taken they were living in Fresno, California at 3406 Nevada Street. The census noted that Otto was working as a cement worker so he might have been working with his father-in-law or somehow gotten a job because of his connection with Maude’s father.

Otto Baty

A little more than nine months after Maude and Otto were married Maude gave birth to Evelyn Virginia Baty on June 28, 1913. Maude was twenty at the time. Three years later, Dorothy Baty was born on April 16, 1916. Dorothy was born at Inglewood Park Cemetery – a rather strange place to be born but that is where her father was working at the time as a groundskeeper and gravedigger. Dorothy was born a few months after Maude’s mother Carrie had died. Maude and Otto’s third child Robert Lawrence Baty was born when Maude was 29, on November 19, 1922, and their last child – a son Jerry Otto was born several years later on January 12, 1930, when Maude was thirty-six. Maude’s brother Elmer died on September 30, 1925, when Maude was thirty-two and her father died eleven months after Elmer.

In April of 1930, Maude and Otto were living at 3924 Huntington Boulevard in Fresno with their four children. They owned their own home which was valued at $11,000. This valuation was right in the middle of others on the census page. Otto was still working as a cement contractor when the census was taken. In May of 1931, the Van Nuys News reported that Maude and Otto attended a reunion at the home of Frank Swallow in Fresno. Maude’s brother Lewis and his wife Anna also attended as did Mr. and Mrs. John Adams of Roseville, and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Buntain of Modesto. Bessie Buntain was a Pattillo cousin.

Baty home in Fresno

In 1932, Maude and Otto moved back to Los Angeles and in 1934 they were living in the San Fernando Valley at 1600 Mission Boulevard. That is where they were when their daughter Evelyn married Don Weirick on May 12, 1934. From 1940 to 1950 Maude and Otto were living at 10721 Zelzah in the Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

According to Joyce Modugno, Maude’s granddaughter, “The reason the Baty family moved to Los Angeles was because of the Great Depression. Work in the concrete construction business was scarce for non-government workers.” Joyce’s mother told the story that “the “folks” never really wanted to move from Fresno, but they had no choice. Otto loved living near the Western Sierra’s with the lakes and hunting. Maude loved their home on Huntington where she had many friends.” Joyce’s mother, Dorothy “was approaching her senior year of high school and never let anyone in the family forget that she was torn away from her school and her friends.”

When they moved to Los Angeles, Joyce continues, "The area that they settled in was just less than a mile from the San Fernando Mission "San Fernando Mission Blvd". That house remained until the northern end of the 405 freeway was built in the late 1960's-early 1970s."

Home on Zelzah Avenue

Joyce explains, “My grandfather quickly reinvented himself by realizing that the northern portion of the San Fernando Valley was a rural area primarily covered with mile after mile of orange groves, grapefruit groves, and lemon groves. He had a good knowledge of citrus trees since upon moving from Iowa to California as a child, his family had settled in Highgrove near Riverside, the original home of the "Navel Oranges" famous as the eating orange which ripened in the mild California fall and early winter. He knew a great deal about the insects and diseases that attacked the citrus and he saw this as an opportunity to start a business in the area of Granada Hills. Dorothy Baty would tell the story of her father Otto going to the Security National Bank in San Fernando, introducing himself to the manager, explaining his plan to start his "pest control and citrus fumigating" business and after a handshake with the manager Tom Binda, walked out with his business loan! This type of trust in the middle of the Depression. Otto's business was a great success providing work for many members of the family including Joyce’s Uncle Bob and her father, Ransom Tucker after WWII was over. Joyce’s mother Dorothy also worked for the company after Ransom died suddenly in 1959.

Page from the book that tells about
Otto's fumigation business

Otto was a very successful entrepreneur who utilized the latest technology and equipment to grow orange trees. A book about Granda Hills said this about Otto, "In 1938, Otto W. Baty migrated to Granada Hills from Fresno, California. The Baty family built their home and cultivated 40 acres of citrus trees at 10721 Zelzah Avenue - today the site of the Granada Village Shopping Center at the northwest corner of Chatsworth Street and Zelzah Avenue. Baty established the Otto W. Baty Company, known locally as "Baty's", one of the San Fernando Valley's most successful commercial fumigation services for local citrus orchards." Photo supplied by his daughter-in-law Marilyn DeFreitas Baty. He moved away from Granada Hills in 1955.”

In 1958, Otto owned a 60-acre ranch in Ojai Valley that he named the "Lily E" after his mother. He raised black Angus cattle, grew oranges and kept bees. But by about 1961, the handwriting was on the wall for the citrus industry in the San Fernando Valley so Otto sold the ranch in Ojai and moved to Los Osos where he and opened Baty's Bottle Shop - a liquor store where his two sons worked for him. Joyce’s grandparent's youngest son, Jerry and his family, lived on the ranch, helping the "old man" out until they all moved to Los Osos.”

Newspaper article about Maude making hooked rugs.

One of Maude’s many interests was making hooked rugs. A newspaper ran a story about Maude and noted that she had won a number of awards. She also enjoyed gardening and I’ve been told had a lovely garden at her home that was full of fruit trees, a vegetable garden and many varieties of roses, camellias and seasonal flowers. Joyce comments, “Maude certainly had a green thumb”.

Of all the Pattillo siblings Maude was the most actively engaged in community affairs. I found several newspaper articles about her between 1946 and 1958 – after her children were raised. Maude was very involved with the Granada Hills-Northridge Garden Club. In May of 1946, the Van Nuys News ran a story about Maude organizing a garden club sponsored blood drive for the Red Cross. According to her granddaughter Joyce, Maude was given an award from the USO for all the blood they collected. The need for blood was probably related to World War II which had ended nine months previously.

Maude's garden club ran a successful blood drive in 1946.
Maude second from the left in the front row of women.

In June of 1946, Maude again hosted a garden club tea at her home with the Granada Hills Garden Club. This was a floral display titled Rainbow Gardens. In April of 1950, Maude hosted another event with the Garden Club. After the club meeting and election of officers the group had lunch at Pierre’s in Pasadena and then they toured the gardens at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. I would have enjoyed that event. The club had forty-eight members according to the news story and was federated with the California Garden Club, Inc.

In February of 1951, the paper reported on another garden club event hosted by Maude – a tour of El Descanso Gardens located in La Canada/Flintridge as part of a three-day event hosted by the California Arboretum Foundation. The last article I found was from February of 1958 when they reported that Maude helped host a luncheon for the Granada Hills Women’s Club. The Glas Belles choral group provided entertainment for a luncheon hosted by Mrs. John Zenio. According to Joyce, Maude was a founder of the Granada Hills Women’s Club.

Another garden club gathering.

Of all her siblings Maude was also very generous. She and her husband Otto opened there home to at least two of her siblings at various times. Her younger brother Elmer and his wife Winifred were living with Maude and Otto when the 1920 census was taken and her older sister Mary lived with them for several years when Mary was divorced and needed financial support.

One thing that is noteworthy about Maude is that everyone who knew her personally commented on how stylish she was – that she loved nice clothes and lingerie. My mother Lottie said, “Maude was always well dressed and had her hair and makeup done”. Laine, a grandniece said that she heard that “Maude was outgoing, quite a character and forward-thinking as a young woman." Joyce heard that "Maude was a bit spoiled and short-tempered – but not with her." She recalls, "I remember my Mom whisking me away when those two old sisters got to fighting and using words I wasn't supposed to hear!" Both Laine and Joyce report that Maude was her father’s favorite so he spoiled her. After Maude married Otto, he took over spoiling her.

Otto and Maude in her mink stole

When she was middle-aged until her death Maude suffered from diabetes – the same disease her mother had. Prior to her death at age 84 she spent a short time in a convalescent home. She died on January 22, 1978, when she was living in Los Osos, in San Luis Obispo County, California. She was interred in a niche near Otto, Dorothy, and Jerry at Los Osos Valley Memorial Park. Of all the Pattillo siblings only Mary was still living when Maude died and she died three years later in 1981.