Gwendolen Smith Wilson papers

Gwendolen Violet Smith was born October 6, 1904 in Boise, Idaho to Mary Ann Stevens and Edward Schofield Smith. She graduated from Boise High School on June 9, 1922 and University of Idaho on June 7, 1926. After meeting Sprague Morgan Stevens at college they married in Los Angeles, California on June 11, 1927; they had three children: Sharon Mae, Sprague Morgan, Jr., and Carol. In 1939 Sprague and Gwendolen divorced. She married again in 1948 to Eber Michael Wilson.

Gwendolen began working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936. She moved to the Boise City Recreation Program from June-September 1937, before returning to the WPA to become the City Recreation Supervisor and then the Assistant State Supervisor. In February 1943 she became the director of the Ogden USO Center; in September of that same year, she moved back to Boise. Before her retirement she worked briefly at the College of Idaho, the Office of Price Administration, Idaho Association of Retail Food Distribution, the Bureau of the Census, and the Idaho Department of Education School Lunch Division.

Gwendolen Smith Wilson died on February 7, 1985. She is interred in Dry Creek Cemetery next to her second husband.