Leonie Gilmour

Mother of Isamu Noguchi, Leonie Gilmour (1873-1933) was an American teacher and writer who spent the years 1906-1920 in Japan. Gilmour attended Bryn Mawr and the Sorbonne, and met Japanese poet Yone Noguchi in New York when he advertised for someone to help  him with his English.  Their son Isamu was born in November 1904 in Los Angeles, to which Gilmour had moved after Yone returned to Japan.   In 1906 Gilmour and Isamu joined Yone in Tokyo, but the relationship soon ended.  Gilmour and her son, however, remained in Japan, where  she earned her living by teaching English and writing for magazines.  She sent Isamu back to America for schooling in 1918, and returned to California in 1920 with her daughter, Ailes.  In 1923 Gilmour moved to New York, renewing contact with Isamu and supporting herself by importing goods from Japan.  Leonie Gilmour died of pneumonia in New York in 1933.