Albert Gay McKeown: McKeown Genealogy

1886 - 1965 (79 years)

Generation: 1

Albert Gay McKeown was born on 8 Apr 1886 in Conesville, Muscatine County, Iowa; died on 19 Dec 1965 in Los Angeles County, California.

Other Events:

Occupation: dentist
Census: 1920, Leavenworth, Chelan County, Washington
Census: 1930, Seattle, King County, Washington

Notes:

From The Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, 4 March 1932. Page 1.
Dentist confesses killing of aged mother.
Argument over money leads to brutal murder.
Reputed confession of son withheld while probe continues. By the Associated Press. Seattle, Wash. March 3.
Police announced late today that Dr. Albert G. McKeown had confessed he killed his 81-year-old mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown of Muscatine, Ia., with bare hands in a dispute over money.
Dentist Admits Crime.
After two days of questioning, following discovery of the body of Mrs. McKeown in the basement of his home, the doctor broke down this morning, police said. He had been confronted with extensive evidence. “I killed her,” Sheriff Claude G. Bannick quoted him as saying after he had become quieted. Word of the reputed confession of the dentist was withheld by the prosecutor’s office while details of the case were investigated.
Detective Found Will.
Detectives said they had found a will Mrs. McKeown had made three days before her death. In it, they added, she had revoked a previous will which left the bulk of her estate to Dr. McKeown and provided that he share it equally with an old brother, Dr. A. Royal McKeown, also of Seattle.
They added they learned the elderly woman had drafted new notes to make a $10,700 loan to Dr. Albert McKeown payable to her estate, instead of being cancelled, if she died. The new notes were unsigned.
After McKeown’s confession, Sheriff Bannick said he was allowed to go to bed and was wakened late today.The confession was not announced earlier, the sheriff added, to permit more evidence to be assembled.
McKeown Makes Confession
Sheriff Bannick said Dr. McKeown “went to pieces, blew up and confessed.” In addition to the matters of the new will and the notes on his mother’s loan, cuts and abrasions on his left hand were evidence the officers queried him about, they said. The doctor had contended they were not cuts
(continued on page twelve)
but merely burns accidently received from a flat iron.
During the early investigation of the death, the doctor’s wife was questioned and released after spending a night in jail and the elder brother, Dr. A. Royal McKeown, also was brought into the case.
Affairs Readied Crisis
He had told Deputy Prosecutor Lenhan, the prosecutor said, of his irritation over the over the way in which his younger brother had obtained money from his mother and had said that affairs had reached a crisis between them on the day of her death. A portion of a blood-soaked piece of canvas and a piece of charred note was taken from the furnace of the dentist’s home after the mother was found dead. After explaining he had found her body in the basement, the dentist said he had covered her with the canvas and then threw it into the furnace, and substituted a blanket. His story to authorities was that he believed a marauder had slain her in the basement seeking $5,000 in bonds which he said she was accustomed to carry in her clothing.
Mrs. McKeown came west last December with her younger son from her home in Iowa.
Note: This front page story shared the page with news of the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby.

From Burlington Hawk Eve, Burlington, Iowa, 28 April 1932. Page 1.
Jury excused as state argues with defense over testimony about victim.
By the Associated Press.
Seattle, Wash. April 27.
The jury in the Dr. Albert G. McKeown murder trial was excused today when the state began a fight against defense efforts to show his mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown, 81, was mentally unbalanced. McKeown is charged with second degree murder as a result of a fatal beating given her in the cellar of his home here March 1.
Mrs. Martin Jacobson, a neighbor of the McKeowns, was testifying regarding the dead woman’s talk and actions when Prosecutor Robert M. Berrander interrupted with the statement “The first thing we know the defense will be striving to show the old lady deserved to die.”
“That is not true,” retorted Defense Attorney Henry Clay Agnew. Mrs. Jacobson quoted Mrs. McKeown as saying her sons were going to take her into a dark place to murder her. It developed, the witness said, they were taking their mother into a motion picture theater.
The jury was locked up when both sides began an argument on the admissibility of the testimony. The defense effort for force admission of the state’s copy of the dentist’s confession to the beating failed when the court ruled the state need not produce it.

From the Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, 3 May 1932. Page 1.
Dentist Takes Witness Stand.
Prosecution Confronts Defendant With Sheaf of Letters Written to Mother.
By The Associated Press, Seattle, Wash, May 2.
After being subjected to cross-examination throughout the day, Dr. Albert G. McKeown, Seattle dentist charged with second degree murder for the slaying of his mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown of Muscatine, Ia., late today was confronted with a sheaf of letters, he had written to his mother.
Altho the dentist had testified his mother begged him to bring her to Seattle so his brother, Dr. A. Royal McKeown, Seattle physician, could not have her committed to an insane asylum, he admitted authorship of letters, begging the woman to come here.
The dentist when questioned as to why he had attempted to implicate his brother in the killing said the brother “tried to implicate my dear wife.”
Dr. McKeown explained that when he sent for his physician brother after the tragedy he had expected solace and consolation.
Prosecutor Robert M. Burgunder replied with a letter which the dentist admitted writing to his mother in which he referred to the physician as a “thief, a murderer, and libertine.”

From the Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, 14 May 1932. Page 1.
Two Matricides To Be Sentence Today.
By the Associated Press, Seattle, Wash. May 3.
Two matricides who slew their mothers here on the same night last March will be sentence tomorrow in superior court.
They are Dr. Albert McKeown, convicted of second degree murder for beating to death his mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown of Muscatine, Ia., after quarreling over money, and Leslie Barrett, who shot his mother at a drinking party and convicted to manslaughter.

Albert G. McKeown
Funeral services for Albert G. McKeown were held today in Santa Monica, California. Mr. McKeown died last Sunday while vacationing in California. He was a former resident of Muscatine County and was the last member of the family for which the McKeown bridge on County road C was named. His occupation was forming from which he retired.
His parents were Parker and Emma Lord McKeown.
Survivors include three children: Forest of Palos Verdes Peninsula, California, Gayle of Kirkland, Washington and Adele Gupsill [Guptill] of Los Angeles. Relatives in this area include cousins, Herman and Andrew Lord and Mrs. Jesse Korte of Muscatine, and Richard Lord of Nichols. Burial took place in California.

The Muscatine Journal, Muscatine, Iowa. Thursday, 23 December 1965

Albert married Anna Marie Grue on 8 May 1912 in Bellingham, Whatcom County, Washington. Anna (daughter of Christian Grue and Carrie Bilden) was born on 10 Sep 1889 in Hawley, Clay County, Minnesota; died on 7 May 1975 in Redmond, King County, Washington; was buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, King County, Washington. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Children:

2. Forrest Grue McKeown was born on 13 Jul 1913 in Chelan County, Washington; died on 27 May 2009 in Novato, Marin County, California.
3. Gayle L. McKeown was born on 26 Dec 1915 in Chelan, Chelan County, Washington; died on 15 Jan 1992 in Seattle, King County, Washington; was buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, King County, Washington.
4. Adele M. McKeown was born on 21 Apr 1920 in Leavenworth, Chelan County, Washington; died on 16 Jul 2012 in Bothell, King County, Washington.

Generation: 2

Forrest Grue McKeown

(1.Albert¹) was born on 13 Jul 1913 in Chelan County, Washington; died on 27 May 2009 in Novato, Marin County, California.

Other Events:

Census: 1940, Seattle, King County, Washington

Forrest married Betty Lee Benz on 2 May 1942 in King County, Washington. Betty was born on 12 Jun 1919 in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri; died on 12 Jan 2000 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gayle L. McKeown

(1.Albert¹) was born on 26 Dec 1915 in Chelan, Chelan County, Washington; died on 15 Jan 1992 in Seattle, King County, Washington; was buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, King County, Washington.

Notes:

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38572445/gayle_mac_-l-mckeown

Gayle married Dorothy May Langdon on 17 Aug 1946 in King County, Washington. Dorothy was born on 20 Feb 1916 in Chelan County, Washington; died on 24 Jul 1986 in Kirkland, King County Washington; was buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, King County, Washington. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adele M. McKeown

(1.Albert¹) was born on 21 Apr 1920 in Leavenworth, Chelan County, Washington; died on 16 Jul 2012 in Bothell, King County, Washington.

Notes:

Adele and Heath Guptill
IN THE CARE OF

Evergreen Washelli Funeral Home & Cemetery

Adele M. Guptill was born in Leavenworth, Washington on April 21, 1920 to Albert and Anna (Grue) McKeown. She was the youngest of 3 siblings, the oldest being brother Forrest followed by second brother Gayle (Mac). When she was about 4 years old, the family moved to Bellingham where Albert ran Grue's Groceries by the waterfront. They later moved to Seattle.
Heath Reese Guptill was born in Seattle, Washington on June 1, 1917 to Forest Putnam Guptill and Lenore (Reese) Guptill. His sister Eugenia (Gene) was born about 10 years later.
Heath discovered from his grandfather, Nathaniel Heath Guptill (1855-1940), who married Carrie Orilla Putnam, that he is an ancestor to General Israel Putnam of Revolutionary War fame of the Battle of Bunker Hill ("don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes").
Heath and Adele attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle where they met while working on the "Stage Force" crew building sets for the theatre department. They also enjoyed singing in the choir. Adele and Heath also attended the University of Washington where Heath got a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1939. He also entered a Masters program before the start of WWII. Heath and Adele married on October 20, 1942 and lived briefly in Schenectady, New York where Heath had a job at GE, as well as the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC (working on the then secret radar project). They later moved back to the West coast where they had 2 sons. Summer vacations were often spent camping or visiting family in the Seattle area. In L.A. Heath worked at Hughes Aircraft until his retirement in 1973. Wanting to move back to the Northwest after raising their family in the LA area, they built their new home in Bothell, Washington in 1974 where they lived until March, 2008.
After retirement, Heath and Adele enjoyed a busy life and traveled to Norway, England, Ireland, Hawaii and cruised the Inland Passage to Alaska. Adele enjoyed bicycling and they were both long-time members of the Bothell Senior Center "Gourmet Bicycle" riding group. Adele would ride all over the King county area and after the rides, the group would meet for a hearty lunch. Heath would act as their "sag wagon", assist with repairs and "sweep" the course for people needing a ride back to the starting point. Heath also joined the Seattle Sail and Power Squadron to further safety education in small boat seamanship and navigation. They enjoyed a wonderful sail into Princess Louisa Inlet - a place he remembered going to when he was a Boy Scout. They both had a zest for life and enjoyed sailing and being out on the water in the Sound, as well as attending various plays, Civic Light Opera, and World Cavalcade travel presentations with friends.
They have 6 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren. They used to rotate and "trade off" hosting Christmas gatherings either at their home in Bothell or at their son's homes in the LA area or in Oregon. Their out of state families would also come visit and enjoy the liberal policy on fireworks at the Fourth of July in Bothell.
Heath was a voracious reader and loved science fiction. He also enjoyed tinkering with electronic or wood projects in his garage workshop. He created various functional works of art and enjoyed being a "handyman" around the house. Adele worked briefly as an administrative assistant at UCLA and taught Sunday school. She was the consummate home-maker and hostess and tried numerous new healthful recipes on the family; many successful ones have been handed down to their children. Adele had a gigantic vegetable garden, growing fruits and vegetables for their table. She was also an accomplished seamstress and enjoyed sewing and knitting, creating numerous functional outfits and pieces for her family.
They were still very much in love and devoted to each another after almost 69 years of marriage! At one point before giving up driving, Heath drove into Bothell to get a Mother's Day card for his bride - one of his last independent "errands".
In the last several years, Heath's health declined as a result of dementia and a stroke, but Adele was his constant companion and caretaker to the end - Heath called her "his angel". Heath passed away July 18, 2011 in Bothell. He was much loved by his family and friends who will miss his lively conversations and good company with him. In all, he was a compassionate, intelligent and ethical person throughout his life.
Adele always had a sparkle in her eyes and was loved and admired by her family as well as friends at her assisted living facility. Her family wondered where she got her strength and determination, but she passed away July 16, 2012 in Bothell, WA after battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was compassionate, loving, determined and righteous throughout her life. Their family and friends will miss them both very much.
May they rest in peace at Evergreen Washelli in Seattle, together again.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/seattle-wa/adele-guptill-8169667

Adele married Heath Reese Guptill on 20 Oct 1942 in King County, Washington. Heath was born on 1 Jun 1917 in Seattle, King County, Washington; died on 18 Jul 2011 in Bothell, King County, Washington. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

McKeown and Shields Families

Albert Gay McKeown