Gertrude Glutsch Jensen was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1903. She studied political science at Reed College from 1922 to 1923, but left before completing her degree. In 1929, she and Frederic Charles Jensen were married. They later had one child and divorced a few years afterward. Jensen was a freelance reporter for the Oregonian and Oregon Journal newspapers in Portland for 14 years, and worked as a real estate broker from the 1930s through the 1950s. When her mother became ill, Jensen left work to care for her. During this time, she became aware of the large-scale logging operations in the Columbia River Gorge, and she soon became involved in conservation efforts. She sat on the board of the Oregon Roadside Council for over 25 years, was chair of the Columbia River Gorge Commission from 1953 to 1969, and was chair of the Save the Columbia Gorge committee. She received the Conservation Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1961, the Distinguished Service Award from Oregon Governor Tom McCall in 1964, and the Woman of the Year award from the Portland Women’s Forum in 1967. She died in 1986.