Gertrude, who always went by the nickname Gertie, was reared in Amsterdam, New York and in a Manhattan townhouse on East 72nd Street, half a block from Central Park.

For years, she pursued big game and contributed rare specimens to natural history museums, covering the period of 1923 to 1939, including expeditions to Africa, Iran, Southeast Asia, Canada, and Alaska.

Following their marriage, the couple purchased one of South Carolina's oldest surviving plantations, Medway, to make their home.

Her second husband was Peter Manigault (1927-2004), chairman of The Evening Post Publishing Company in Charleston, South Carolina.

[8] Bokara was married twice: to Richard Mack, a film maker, and Arthur Patterson, a venture capitalist.

In late September 1944 she became the first American woman in uniform captured in Germany[10] when, on an unauthorized visit to the front near Luxembourg, she found herself pinned down by German sniper fire, along with two OSS officers and their driver.

[13] In 1947, Gertrude and her husband Sidney joined an expedition to India led by S. Dillon Ripley to collect specimens for the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale.

She married Dr. Carnes "Piggy" Weeks on 22 March 1951, but the marriage was an unhappy one that ended in divorce after five years, and she reverted to her Legendre name.

She never lost her hunger for travel, visiting many countries and making a round-the-world trip with her daughter Bokara Legendre in 1962.

In the 1980s and 1990s, she granted conservation easements on her landmark house to the Historic Charleston Foundation and on most of the property to Ducks Unlimited.

[15] Until nearly the end of her life, Mrs. Legendre gave a traditional New Year's Eve costume party at Medway.

[18] She is the subject of the book Gertie: The Fabulous Life of Gertrude Sanford Legendre, Heiress, Explorer, Socialite, Spy (2019)[19] and A Guest of the Reich (2019).