Alice Gray was born in Lombard, Illinois in November 1889 to Henry Gray and his wife, Mary Schreiber Gray. Her father owned a hardware and farm implement store on Park Avenue in the business district and the family lived above the store. Later, her father had the big white house at 116 S. Main Street built for the family. Gray’s hardware store burned down when allegedly, a careless smoker tossed a cigarette which in turn ignited oil soaked twine. Henry Gray retired from the hardware business and became an auctioneer of farm implements.
Alice attended Lombard Public School through eighth grade. She then went to Wheaton High School, then Lewis Institute in Chicago, and then studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. She taught piano in Lombard, eventually opening her own studio on Park Avenue in downtown Lombard. According to the family, Alice taught an average of 69 students a week. She organized recitals for her students, and had formal programs printed for all who attended. In addition to being a gifted pianist, Alice was a photographer. The images she captured, whether around town or on one of her many trips, were collected into scrapbooks. Alice’s photographs and scrapbooks are treasured by the Lombard Historical Society as a visual memory of a Lombardian. Two photos of the Gray family Christmas tree are shown in the carousel below.
Alice never married and lived with her parents until their deaths. Her father, Henry, died in 1929 and her mother, Mary, died in 1945. She lived in the big white house until her death in 1970 when it was sold. The home became the offices for the Lombardian newspaper for many years and now is the location of Rosemary & Jean’s restaurant.
