Iris Luella Bradley was born September 16, 1898 in Croswell Twp., Sanilac County, Michigan. She was the 10th of 13 children born to Nelson W. and Eusibia Jane Ostrander Bradley. Her siblings included: Friend Gould; Simeon Lloyd Mowat; Charlotte Lovissa; Laura Ermina; Clyde (died in infancy); Florence Evelyn; Charles Nelson; Clarence Willard; Leona Eleanor (died at 3); Ruth Allegra; Mildred Maria; and Lester Delorma Bradley.
Not much is known about Iris’s youth. Her mother died in January, 1920, when Iris was 22. In that same month, she was listed as a boarder in a house in Detroit in the U.S. census. Later in that same year, Iris married William Mathew Palmer in Detroit.
Iris and son George Melvin (circa 1930)
Mathew and Iris had three children: William Mathew, Jr. (1921), Marilyn Ruth (1923), and George Melvin (1926). William became ill with lung cancer in his early 40’s, and he died October 20, 1940 at age 46, leaving wife Iris and three teenage children.
In the 1940s, Iris became ill and was hospitalized in Westland, Michigan. She died in May 1950.
FACTS ABOUT IRIS LUELLA PALMER
NAME AT BIRTH: Iris Luella Bradley
BIRTH:16 Sep 1898, Sanilac County, MI
DEATH: May 1950, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
BURIAL: Grand Lawn Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne County, MI
FATHER: Nelson W. Bradley
MOTHER: Eusibia Jane Ostrander
OCCUPATION: 1920, Clerical worker at a drug company
MARRIED: William Mathew Palmer, after January 1920
CHILDREN: William Mathew, Jr., Marilyn Ruth, and George Melvin Palmer
