GILROY
– It isn’t often that a pair of neighborhood kids who used to
throw rocks at each other and call each other names grow up to
marry each other. But in the case of Jeanne Gage, she has been
married to former Gilroy mayor and current County Supervisor Don
Gage for more than 20 years.
GILROY – It isn’t often that a pair of neighborhood kids who used to throw rocks at each other and call each other names grow up to marry each other. But in the case of Jeanne Gage, she has been married to former Gilroy mayor and current County Supervisor Don Gage for more than 20 years. She has been an active behind-the-scenes supporter of her husband, but her story is one of a local girl who still calls Gilroy home sweet home.
“I was born in San Francisco, but we moved to Gilroy when I was 2 and a half. My dad got a teaching job at Gilroy High School teaching boys physical education; that was in 1944. He taught there for 30 years,” said Gage, whose maiden name was Baxter. “We lived on Marie Avenue, right where the Black Bear Restaurant is. Don lived a few blocks away. About 20 of us, around the same age in the neighborhood, played together. My childhood in Gilroy was a happy, happy time. We didn’t have TV; there wasn’t Little League. So, we made up our own games, built forts and climbed trees.”
Gage remembers when Leavesley Road was a quaint two-lane country road that traveled through a town of about 3,000 closely connected citizens.
“It was so idyllic in the 1940s, not the same pressure of raising children that there is now, and if we were playing five blocks away from home families knew us. It wasn’t hard for us to know the lineage back three or more generations of all our families.”
Gage attended Gilroy High School and was class president. She also worked on many school and church committees. In the summers, she worked picking prunes and strawberries, or working for one of the store owners in town.
“Jobs were plentiful for young teens, we all did it. It was a great way to make a little bit of money,” she said.
Gage went to Hartnell College for two years and then moved to San Jose with a girlfriend for a year.
“It was the worst year of my life – people were so different,” she said. “No one invited you back to their homes. They’d evaporate after work. I was a Gilroy girl, and I was glad to move back home.”
She married Louis Bonesio a year later and raised a son and daughter. Her son died at the age of 25, which was catastrophic for the family – and then she lost her husband. She met Don Gage again, riding the Route 68 bus together to where they worked at IBM.
“It was one of those things, a chance meeting, and we reacquainted ourselves. Don was on the City Council when I started dating him. I’ve always been involved in the background. It’s been fun, I’ve lived outside the box and we have a larger than normal spectrum. I’ve met so many people.”
Jeanne Gage has been the president of the Library Cultural Commission, sat on Park and Recreation commissions, been the parish president at St. Mary’s and involved with the school board. She learned to be committed to helping her community from her family.
“My father and mother taught us to have a love of community, uphold high standards and care for others. From walking the pavement with Don and supporting his political goals, I have learned tolerance and respect for people’s opinions. Working together works.”
