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A Bicycle Accident with No Lasting Harm

On this date 100 years ago little Blanche Owen, the 6 year old daughter of a local lawyer, Wesley Owen and his wife Ora, (911 Oakland) was playing in the neighborhood of Oakland and Clinton. Pauline Gilmore, the daugther of Frank and Cora Gilmore (603 Oakland) was riding her bicycle there as well. Pauline agreed to give little Blanche a ride on her bicycle, or Blanche was enticed to take a ride on the bicycle and they proceeded down Clinton, with Blanche riding on the handlebars. It appears that the story told in the Pantagraph came only from Blanche, because the report read that Blanche received several large cuts and bumps to her head and came home all alone.

Blanche went on to live a happy life, moving from Oakland Street to Woodland and then to #1 Country Club Place. She had an active social life and was a thespian in high school. No record of her college career or marriage is noted in the Pantagraph.

Pauline Gilmore also moved with her parents from Oakland Street to live at 221 Leland and reigned as queen in a local beauty pageant. She married Mr. Wolfert, an interior decorator. After a loss of hair due to several bouts of 'flu, she studied the scalp and became one of the foremost scalp experts in the United States. The Wolferts moved to Hollywood, where she had celebrity clients she would not name, but claimed to be able to cause bald men to grow hair.

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