Pioneer Information
Born and raised on a farm near Lansing, Michigan, where she attended high school, Gillette became the first female to graduate from Michigan Agricultural College with a degree in landscape architecture in 1920. She took a job in Jens Jensen’s Chicago office, where she performed a variety of duties, including preparing drawings and working with The Friends of the Native Landscape, a group of conservationists headed by Jensen. After leaving his office, Gillette moved to Lakeland, Florida, where she worked for the Chamber of Commerce as a consultant on city development. She returned to Detroit to work for John Brightmeyer and Son’s Florists, assisting with the nursery’s landscape work. Gillette also worked as a garden instructor for the Detroit Park and Recreation Department with the public school system, helping thousands of city residents with their thrift gardens during the Great Depression. During this time she also managed the development of Westacres, a low-cost government housing project with community gardens near Pontiac. After eight years of work, Gillette consulted with the community for the next seventeen years.
Gillette also operated a small private practice for over 30 years in the Ann Arbor area, receiving commissions from such major clients as the City of Big Rapids, Ferris State College, and Albion College. She worked with P.J. Hoffmaster, Michigan’s first superintendent of state parks, to build a large system of well-kept Michigan parks. Gillette was involved with the establishment of the Michigan State Parks Association, serving as president for ten years and lobbying the State Legislature on the association’s behalf. In 1965 President Johnson invited her to serve on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty. She also served on the Wilderness and Natural Areas Advisory Board of Michigan as late as 1981. Gillette became a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1968.
