The Geraldine McGrady Jones Collection is a small 20th century family collection that documents ordinary family life in Los Gatos, California. This collection consists of typed and handwritten creative writing works by Geraldine McGrady Jones, family photographs, a collection of digitized photographs and an informal oral history interview with the two surviving daughters, Geraldine (Gerri) Peters and Betty Emrett.

Geraldine McGrady Jones (1892-1952) was born in San Francisco and five years later moved with her family to Los Gatos. She attended the San Jose Normal School where she graduated in 1914, after which she worked as a school teacher at the Wright's Station School in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was there that she met her husband William 'Billy' Jones who worked as an engineer for the Union Pacific railroad. The couple lived in converted boxcars for the first several years of their marriage and eventually settled in Los Gatos where they raised their four children Betty ,Geraldine, Robert and Neal. Geraldine Jones recorded vignettes of her family life in the form of short stories and poems, several of theses poems honor her sons' sacrifices and commitment in World War II; both were killed in the war. Following World War II, Geraldine Jones worked as an aid in the San Jose Hospital and the Dibble Hospital in Menlo Park.

1 box, .21 linear feet

Copyright has been assigned to the San José State University Library Special Collections & Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Special Collections & Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital reproductions of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.