Honoring Gertrude’s Life and Legacy
Gertrude Blanks (1920-2019) has been described by those who knew her as a “Hartford legend,” “Mama Blanks,” and “everyone’s grandmother.” She was a storyteller and educator who dedicated her life to serving the community, connecting with young people, and education through storytelling. In 2021, she was honored as part of a mural on the façade of the Noah Webster Library.
Hosted in partnership with the Office of Employee Development and Community Engagement.
2026 Celebration: March 20-April 30
Join us to celebrate Gertrude and her love of storytelling, community, and libraries! Activities will include:
Exhibition: Gertrude Blanks’ Life & Legacy
April 1-30 | Noah Webster Library Gallery
An exhibit about Gertrude’s life and accomplishments. The exhibit was researched and curated by Brett Freiburger, Local History Librarian, with assistance from Hartford Public Library.
The exhibit can be visited when the library is open. Visit www.westhartfordlibrary.org for a full list of library hours.
Nations of West Hartford
Poster Exhibition | March 23-April 30 | Faxon Library
Nations of West Hartford is an initiative of Linnea Knox in partnership with the West Hartford Public Library, sharing stories of people from all over the globe who now call West Hartford home.
The goal of Nations of West Hartford is to connect members of the greater West Hartford community through shared hobbies, traditions, or simple everyday perspectives. Beyond West Hartford, Linnea hopes that this encourages engagement with libraries as community hubs and highlights the importance of listening. It is through listening that we learn from each other, and ultimately, grow stronger together.
Once Upon a Story: A Storytime in Honor of Gertrude Blanks
Wednesday, April 8 | 6:45-7:15pm | Faxon Library
Ages 3 & up: Put your PJs on and snuggle in at Faxon for a storytime about the power of words, stories, and libraries. This program is for the child and their caregiver.
No registration required.
Who Was Gertrude?
Gertrude S. (Boyer) Blanks (1920-2019)
Coming to Hartford from Baltimore at the age of three, little Gertrude Boyer could not have known that she would be cemented as a pilar of storytelling in the Greater Hartford community five decades later. Sent by her mother, Pearl, to live with her maternal grandparents, Gertrude and Lewis Markel, at 75 Pliny Street in Hartford, hoping to provide Gertrude with a more opportune upbringing in the booming Insurance Capital. Meanwhile, Pearl began to work as a live-in domestic at 134 Steele Road in West Hartford for Howard and Grace Penrose. With the sudden death of Lewis in 1929, Gertrude Boyer moved into the servant quarters of the Steele Road home with her mother and began a whole new chapter of her young life.
Gertrude Boyer began at Morley Elementary in 1930, then off to Plant Junior High before attending Hall High School, graduating in 1938. According to a Hartford Courant article, the Penroses insisted that Gertrude be admitted to Hall High School, making her one of only four black students to graduate from Hall in the 1930s. While her mother’s employers may have fought for Gertrude, other citizens of West Hartford were not as welcoming. Later in life, Gertrude recounted being barred entry from school by fellow students, being left to trudge to school in all weather while being mocked by classmates in their cars, and all that time remembering her grandma Gert’s advice:
“Grit your teeth. Make up your mind that you are not going to answer. You’re not going to get down to where they are.”
After graduating, Gertrude began to work for G. Fox & Co. in downtown Hartford, living at 290 Garden Street with Pearl. In 1944, Gertrude married, divorced, remarried, and had three children before beginning as a part-time clerk at the Hartford Public Library in 1961, a position that offered her the chance opportunity to fill in for the library’s usual storyteller, Gwen Reed. Eventually Blanks became Reed’s replacement in the 1970s following the latter’s retirement. This chance opportunity also reignited Gertrude’s passion for the stage. Having been a part of Hall High School’s Opera Club, she began to engage her thespian skills through work and in Hartford’s growing theater scene with parts in productions for Hartford Stage Company, the New Heritage Repertory Theater, and the Open Stage Co., who engaged in race-blind casting.
Gertrude’s retirement from Hartford Public Library did not stop her enthusiasm for storytelling. In 1989, along with Sherry Balfour and Alvin “Abu” Carter, Gertrude began the Peanut Butter Players, a theater group aimed at sharing African-American and Caribbean storytelling traditions with children from kindergarten to 3rd grade. Performances of Stone Soup, Anansi the Spider, and Gertrude’s role as Rosa Parks taught children and adults the importance of our individual and shared cultural heritage. Throughout the 1990s and up until her death, Gertrude Blanks continued to share these important cultural tales with young audiences across the Capital Region.
Brett Freiburger, Local History Librarian, March 2025