Margarita Wall was born February 14, 1882, most likely in Arizona. She was the first-born daughter of Fred Wall and Refugio Rebecca Ramirez. Fred Wall is thought to have been an immigrant from Ireland and sometime miner. A sister, Matilda, was born about four years later, after which her parents parted. Their mother remarried several times thereafter.
On February 15, 1904, Margarita (or Maggie, as she was known), wed Carlos Robledo Chretin in Phoenix, Arizona. Chretin’s unusual surname was due to the fact that his father, Jean-Marie Chretin, was a Frenchman who had married a Mexican woman.
Maggie was probably suffering from tuberculosis already at the time of her marriage. She gave birth to a male infant on December 2, 1904, and died only six days later, on December 8. She was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, with a three-piece marble monument marking her grave.
Maggie’s newborn son was originally named Fred John Chretin. Upon his mother’s death, he was given to his maternal grandmother, Refugio Rebecca Ramirez, who was already nursing an eight-month-old daughter named Ruby O’Leary. Baby Fred’s life was most likely saved because of this steady supply of breastmilk, which also imparted some degree of immunity to childhood illnesses. Fred and Ruby grew up together, and Fred always regarded her as his sister, even though she was actually his half-aunt. Being raised in his grandmother’s household, Fred adopted the surname of her then husband, Daniel O’Leary.
Margaret Chretin’s widower, Carlos Chretin, eventually remarried and had several more children with his second wife, Marta Hernandez. Both the Chretins and the O’Learys moved to Los Angeles around 1918.
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