Gladys Thibaudeau (married name Gladys Laney) as a teenager in the early-mid 1920s. Studio portrait.

Gladys was born July 16, 1910, at home on the southwest corner of Market Street and Newhall Avenue. She attended the third K-8 Newhall School on Pico Road (later called Lyons); we don't know but it's possible this was a graduation photo. In any case it shows Gladys around the time she was attending dances at the dance hall in Mentryville and Hap-A-Lan Hall in Newhall (northwest corner Market and Railroad Avenue). Neither building exists today; the latter was razed after it was used as a makeshift morgue for St. Francis Dam victims in 1928.

After Newhall School, Gladys attended San Fernando High School and UCLA. As of 2014 she still lives on Market Street, although her childhood home is now a senior apartment complex.