09/11/2026
Check out the Cloverdale Historical Society’s new page! A lot of research goes into these fascinating longform articles, which bring the stories, people, and places of Cloverdale’s past to life. Thank you Kim Wallis for this fascinating portrait of music teacher, mortician - and perhaps even spy - Edna Frances Carpentier! 🔎🎶
More Than a Mortician
Edna Frances Carpentier was born in 1892 in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1915 she married Nelvin Stone Cobb in Spokane, WA. A Cloverdale Reveille newspaper article dated May 3, 1978 states: Edna “studied [pre-med] under a doctor in Seattle, Washington for four years and in 1918 became a licensed mortician in the state of California”. She also was reportedly the only licensed embalmer in San Francisco in 1919. This was quite an accomplishment for a 26 year old woman whose last “formal” education was 8th grade (according to 1940 census records).
In 1917 Edward Cooley, Cloverdale’s mortician and furniture dealer, died. Mr. Cooley’s wife turned over the funeral side of the business to Clarence Curtis, the Healdsburg mortician. In 1920 Mr. Curtis died in a car accident. In that same year, Edna and Nelvin Cobb moved to Cloverdale, took over the funeral business, moved it back to Cloverdale and combined it with a furniture business.
In 1930 Nelvin and Edna divorced and in 1936 Edna married George Gorden. Mr. Gorden worked for the telephone company and Edna continued to run the furniture/funeral business, while also serving as a deputy coroner for Sonoma County. The Gordens also purchased vacant lots in town and built houses on some of them (Cloverdale Reveille November 30, 1939). George Gorden died in 1951 and is buried in the Cloverdale Riverside cemetery. In 1954 Fred Young bought the Edna Gorden Mortuary business.
For the following 30 years Edna continued living a full life in Cloverdale. She was the organist for the Episcopal church, played first violin in the Santa Rosa Symphony and she belonged to several clubs and associations. Edna was the first musical string teacher in the Cloverdale school district. She was said to have a green thumb, as evidenced by her beautiful garden and yard. Her name was often mentioned in the newspaper for attending social events or giving a party. In 1965 she wrote a column in the Cloverdale Reveille newspaper about the history of Cloverdale and said she was writing a book about the history of the town. (No evidence of a published book can be located.) She was a dancing instructor and gave ballet lessons in Cloverdale, Geyserville and Healdsburg. She also put on dance recitals at the Citrus Fair.
A November 1973 Cloverdale Reveille newspaper article reported Edna received honors from the Marine Corps in 1972 for “secret work” she did for the government. The reporter who talked to her noted there was a citation of appreciation hanging on the wall of her house thanking her for her service to the Marine Corps.
Edna died May 26,1984 and her funeral services were held at the Cloverdale Fred Young & Company mortuary. She was buried at the Cloverdale cemetery, where she had been the caretaker in the 1930’s.
The Cloverdale Historical Society has three volumes of funeral records, from 1920 - 1954, for the N. S. Cobb funeral home (later known as the Edna Gorden funeral home). These records are very detailed and include an amazing amount of information. Some of the items reported include: specific burial costs, cause of death, types of services rendered, place of burial, next of kin, names of pallbearers and detailed familial information. Information included was often much more detailed than what would appear on the certificate of death and are a great resource for genealogy information.
The attached picture of a young and stylish Edna is undated and has been provided courtesy of the Cloverdale Historical Society. Reproduction is prohibited without permission.
