Louis Hill Gourley

Notes:

U.S. Counsel and Minister; Korea 1941; Jap. Concentration camp.
Crippled.

email from Paula Marie Gourley lilyhousestudio@aol.com
Louis Hill Gourley was the U.S. Consul to Warsaw, Poland circa 1924. He met my father, Raymond Serge (Sergei Vladimovich Voronkoff) when visiting a Methodist orphanage near Warsaw, Poland in 1923-24, when my dad acted as a translator for him. A friendship was struck and Mr. Gourley subsequently arranged to bring my father to the U.S. and to educate him here. He also encouraged him to use the name Gourley, though I am not sure if any legal adoption took place. I have a formal photo of Mr. Gourley (with his signature) kept with our family papers. My dad was educated in McKenzie Military School in Spring Hill, Tennessee and then at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) in 1928-29 where he was enrolled in the School of Commerce. He was a member of Lambda Chi fraternity there, where they referred to him (in the Corolla yearbook) as "the Russian count." (Interestingly enough, I was a faculty member in the School of Library and Information Service on the same campus from 1985-1998!) It is my understanding that Louis Hill Gourley never married. After his appointment in Warsaw, he received a consular appointment in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

My father, Raymond Serge Gourley, was born in Munich, Germany on February 8, 1908. His mother was a Frenchwoman, Marie Catherine Chabredier, from Lyon, France. Born in 1878, she died in San Francisco circa 1953. His father, Vladimir Voronkoff, was the chief surveyor to Tsar Nicholas. He died of typhoid fever during the Russian Revolution (1917). My father served in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of Major. He was the first Russian instructor hired, in 1946, at the Presidio of Monterey-Army Language School in Monterey, California, where he was chairman of the Russian Department. He married my mother, Frances (Efrosinia) Eliseyevna Kovtynovich in Reno, Nevada on August 13, 1946. My father died in Pebble Beach, California on 25 October 1972. My mother was born in Kisselyovka,Chernobya,Ukraine on 13 September 1912 and died in Carmel on 11 November 1978.

I was born in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California on April 29, 1948 and my sister, Frances Tamara Gourley Rutherford, followed on September 24, 1949. There's more, but this is probably enough for the moment!

Notes:

Jeweler and co-owner with his brother Jim of Gourley Jewelry Store of
Springfield.

Albert married Jeanette Craig on 31 May 1871 in Springfield, IL. Jeanette was born on 11 Jul 1848 in Near Guelf, Ontario, Canada; died on 27 May 1929 in Springfield, IL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Source, "The Gehlmann Family in America" by Robert Gehlmann Bone.

James married Lucy Ann Poe on 27 Feb 1837 in Springfield, IL. Lucy (daughter of Jacob Flowers Poe and Lucy Rebecca Payne) was born on 11 Jun 1818 in Chatham County, NC; died on 20 Apr 1863 in Springfield, IL; was buried in Oak Ridge Cem., Springfield, IL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Jacob married Lucy Rebecca Payne in 1809. Lucy (daughter of John Payne) was born about 1789; died in 1823. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]