Mary Luella Gilpatrick was born in 1896 in Seattle and moved to Juneau with her family around 1918. When the family moved to Sitka, she ran The Photo Shop with her father, James Henry "Gil" Gilpatrick, from 1924 to 1960. After her father's death in 1960, Luella ran the business until Dec. 31, 1972. An historic legacy of the Sitka area was left in their photographs.

Luella married Robert Claire in 1919 in Sitka had two children, Margaret (Dangel) and Robert James. She remarried in 1926, to Firman Smith. In 1973, she moved to an island off the coast of Sitka and collected shells and wildflowers. She died May 22, 1978.

In addition to her photographs, Luella is remembered for her culinary talents. She and her best friend, Isabel Miller, made 1,062 jars of Alaska wild berry jams which they sold at the Sitka museum. Another time they made 1,440 jars sold by the Sitka Women's Club.

More Photo Shop Studio photographs (including Luella's) may be found in the Isabel Miller Museum in Sitka. Her extensive collection of wild flowers was donated to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Sheldon Jackson Library in Sitka. Her shells were donated to the Alaska State Museum and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. [From "Luella Smith : Keeping Sitka's beauty, history alive in photos," by Jane Hanchett, Southeastern Log, Ketchikan, Alaska, vol. 8, no. 2, Feb., 1978.]