Gertrude Finney, community legend is still smiling though losing her room.

This perky 96 year old, White Center's original librarian way back in 1949 has been a resident at the Bessie Burton Sullivan home for the aged for 10 years. Owned by Seattle University, the home is being closed and converted to dorm rooms for students and other uses so residents were told they would have till December to find new quarters.

We have known this fountain of local history since she rallied readers in the community and talked hundreds of friends and leaders and into providing a modest library next door to the famous White Center field house basement where she had dispensed books next to the Men's Room.

Her new tower of knowledge was a portable moved from Seattle Center This is where thousands of school kids here first learned that it cost them two cents a day if they brought books back late. Gertrude was tough but I know for a fact that she often opened her own purse for a lot of kids if they promised not to be late again.

If I need to find a fact or two about what White Center was like in the twenties she is a great resource. She is sharp as a new blade and is constantly busy designing and creating colorful gifts for sale at the gift shop.

Her old library was replaced many years ago by a new modern facility on Ambaum and she retired.

Her son Glenn Finney, once our circulation manager for the White Center News lives in Bellevue and has found her a comfortable new place to live nearer to his home.

It is called Mission Health Care. She can have guests but call first.

Jerry can be reached at publisher@robinsonnews.com