BOOTH WHO? - Washington State Digital Archives

in 1941. Evelyn Booth had moved to Coeur d’Alene two months earlier, preparatory
to seeking a divorce under Idaho’s more expeditious laws. The decree was granted on
Jan. 14 on grounds of “extreme cruelty.” Evelyn told the judge that Brick’s job kept him
“away from home a great deal and that when home he refused to participate … in the
usual social affairs customary to their station.” She said he had “a jealous disposition”
and “continuously nagged and unjustly charged her with neglect of the home duties and
has accused her of having no affection for him.” The newspaper described the Gardners
as “prominent members of Tacoma’s younger set,” adding that Evelyn had “taken an
active part in Little Theater dramatics,” while Brick was “active in business and club
circles.” Evelyn was granted custody of their two children, Gail, 3, and Booth, 4½. “She
receives permanent custody of Booth until he is 6, when custody will go to his father,” the
newspaper reported. “A trust fund provides for permanent maintenance of the children.”
Evelyn also was to receive a thousand dollars in cash “and various other property.”
The rest of the story was revealed on the next day’s front page under a Missoula
dateline: “Norton Clapp, secretary of the Weyerhaeuser Timber company and prominent
Tacoma civic leader, was married here today to Mrs. Evelyn B. Gardner, Tacoma socialite,
in the chambers of Montana Supreme Court Justice Leif Erickson, who is a cousin of Mr.
Clapp. Mrs. Edwin Booth of Wenatchee, sister-in-law of the bride, was the only attendant.”
The ceremony was witnessed by “several intimate friends of the couple.” Clapp, the paper
added, had received a final decree of divorce from his wife Mary in Tacoma two days
earlier. “After an extended trip,” the couple planned to make their residence in Tacoma’s
tony Interlaaken district. For the time being, Booth and his sister went to Wenatchee to
stay with their Aunt Lou and Uncle Ed. “That boy cried and cried on the train,” she recalled
years later. “He just kept sobbing, ‘I want to go home to C Street (in Tacoma).’ ” Brick was
also “crushed” by the divorce. “He never got over her,” Booth says.
Clapp had more expensive attorneys, but Brick was not without connections of his
own. He had a friend who was a judge in Pierce County and managed to retain custody of
his son. Gail Gardner went to ive with her mother, her stepfather and Clapp’s sons from
his first marriage. Mary Clapp moved back to California where she and Norton had grown
up. She placed on the market the “picturesque Colonial mansion” she and Clapp had built
“at an original cost of $130,000. It featured “five acres of natural and landscaped beauty
with 333 feet of the finest frontage on exclusive Gravelly Lake – one of the most beautiful
estates in the Northwest.” The asking price was $35,000, “one of the most tremendous
bargains ever offered,” the Realtor said in large newspaper ad.
* * *
With the outbreak of World War II, Norton Clapp and Brick Gardner joined the Navy
as officers. Booth got the news abruptly when he was 5. “My father woke me up at 6 o’clock
in the morning, standing at my bedside in full uniform. That surprised me, but I was even
23