December 27, 1909
DREAMS HER STRONG HOBBY.
Mrs. Virginia Gentry, Who Pre-
dicted Steamship Disaster, Is Here.
A woman who says she is the founder of a new sect called the Divine Scientist Healers and predicted the Vallencia disaster in San Francisco in 1906 recently arrived in this city and is living at 1327 Troost avenue. She is Mrs. Virginia Gentry, widow of the late Colonel R. T. Gentry, who commanded a regiment in General Price's army in Missouri and was well known in state politics a score of years ago.
"When my husband died three years ago he left an estate in this vicinity and I am here looking after it," said Mrs. Gentry. "I will probably reside here permanently.
"Most of the talk we hear of people being cured by the laying on of hands is rot. I think Madame Palladino is a faker and I doubt that she can do what she claims she can without pulling wires in one way or another. Maybe that is because her theory of life and things generally differs from mine. My strong hobby is dreams.
"The day before the Vallencia sailed on its fatal cruise I was in San Francisco with my late husband and the captain of the ship was our guest. He told me a dream he had about being stuck in the sand of a desert. Like a flash the inspiration came to me that it was all up with the captain and I told him so. He believed my warning and tried to be excused from the trip."
Mrs. Gentry has the Vallencia flag, an immense piece of woolen bunting. The captain had jokingly promised her that if his ship went down it should be hers and she obtained it from the steamship company by proving that she made the prediction that the good ship would come to grief.
Labels: California, Civil War, ministers, Troost avenue, women
