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Photo of Gladys Mae (Tillman) Woodley

Gladys Mae (Tillman) Woodley

3/10/1912 - 2/13/2018


Obituary


Gladys Woodley, 105, of Clarion passed away Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at the Clarion Wellness and Rehabilitation Center.

Funeral services for Gladys Woodley will be held at 11:00 AM on Monday, February 26, 2018 at the Clarion Church of Christ, 420 North Main Street in Clarion, with Pastor Warren Curry officiating. Burial will take place at Evergreen Cemetery in Clarion.

Visitation will be held from 9:30 AM until service time at 11:00 AM at the church on Monday.

Gladys was a descendant of a Swedish farming family who originally came to the USA in 1864. The only daughter of Walter Augustus and Hattie Belle (Farr) Tillman, Gladys grew up alongside her 3 brothers, and lived her whole life in Wright County Iowa.

She was a diligent and popular school pupil, earned plaudits for effort and attendance, and graduated from high school in 1929. She wanted to become a teacher, and began her career in 1930 at Grant #4 country school and then the one room schoolhouse, Lincoln #1. She remained a teacher for 6 years until her wedding.

She married Laurence Kerr Woodley on 28th March 1936 after which time she put all her energy into farming. She believed Iowa to be the best place to live in the world, and loved nature, tending her plants in the garden and embarking on a sizeable bottling and preserving spree in the autumn. Gladys' rhubarb juice was especially good!

She was a devoted member of the congregation at the Church of Christ in Clarion, and was immensely proud that her father had been involved in its construction. Indeed, in her later years, the church's 100th anniversary celebrations were something she was very determined to remain alive to take part in! She never liked to miss out on social events.

A happy, lively, energetic woman, she enjoyed square dancing with Laurence, and loved travelling with him, visiting places such as Scandinavia, England, Israel, and Hawaii, as well as exploring the wider USA.

Widowed in 1984, Gladys eventually moved from Rowan to Clarion, a change which she found immensely difficult because it separated her from lifelong friends, but on the other hand it placed her closer to her cherished church family. In her later years she maintained a fiercely defended independence, which she was finally forced to relinquish due to failing health just 7 weeks before her death. Aged 105, she was just a month away from reaching 106 years of age.

She is survived by her daughters, Ilene Kay Jury of Blue Grass, Iowa and Arlene Fay MacPherson of The Villages, Florida; granddaughter and husband Deanna and Jeremy Cadge of Marsworth, England; and her step-great grandchildren Edward Cadge of Berkhamsted, England, and Georgina Cadge of Dunstable, England.