Ella is a cousin of Laura's (Carl's first wife) - but I haven't connected the details yet to know her full name, parents, etc.
The following is from her stepdaughter, Norma Gutke Ellis:
From an interview with Norma Gutke Ellis at her home in Salt Lake City, Utah on 9/25/2005. Interviewed by Dennis Gutke, Norma's nephew, and Dennis's daughter, Deniane Gutke Kartchner.
Norma: Dad married Ella, it was just about a year after Mother died, and it might seem like that was awfully soon, but it was the best thing in the world, cause I was in school at that time, I was going up to Utah State, and I didn't dare stay up there on the weekends and go to any of the dances or anything like that because I knew that Dad would be here alone. So I'd come down and spend the weekend, and every time I would leave, Dad would be sitting in that same chair and he would be crying as I left. It was just awful, and I just almost everytime thought, "Well, I'll just quit. You know, I just won't go back to school." But the thing that kept me going, was I knew that Mother wanted me to go to school, so I just had to make that choice. I kept going to school. And Ella, the one that he married, was Mother's cousin. Did you know that?
Dennis: No.
Norma: She was a Herridge, I think, originally, and she was Mother's cousin, and she was a lot like Mother. And she was so sweet, and she was just a talented person. And I had said, and I mean it, that she was the person that made "stepmother" a beautiful word. It really is. She was so nice. And she was the only grandma that you kids ever knew.
Deniane: Was she married before, and did she have her own children and everything?
Norma: Yeah. She had several children, but they were all married.
Dennis: And I remember going to Grandma's after school every day before Mom got home, and she'd always feed us soft ice cream. But she's the only grandma, well, I knew Grandma Monson, but I had a personal situation with her, because she was just so sweet and so kind to go visit. She was lovely.
Norma: And she was just ... she treated me so nice, you just can't imagine how nice she treated me. She couldn't have treated her own child any better than she did me. She was always just lovely.
Deniane: So did that bring about new relationships with her children, then? I mean, did you do things together?
Norma: No, because her children were all married - they were older and married and had children, and see, I was just, I was so much younger than the others, I was such an afterthought (laughs).
Deniane: You were like an only child in a lot of ways, weren't you!
Norma: Yes. Really. And so, I really didn't... I knew them, and we used to visit them, and none of them lived in town, in Salt Lake. One of them lived up in Morgan, and that's where eventually Ella went to live after Dad died.
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