Home > United States of America > Maryland > Frederick County > Middletown > Zion Lutheran Cemetery > Helen Marie Waters Gladhill

Helen Marie Waters Gladhill

View larger map

1 / 1

❮ ❯

Helen Marie Waters Gladhill

Birth	:	13 Jun 1916 USA
Death	:	22 Apr 2012 Walkersville, Frederick County, Maryland, USA
Burial	:	Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate	:	39.4450600, -77.5457500
Description	:	Helen Marie Waters Gladhill died Sunday, April 22 at Glade Valley Nursing Facility. She was the only child of the late Guy P. Waters and Mary Estelle Younkins Waters and the much loved wife of Ray Calvin Gladhill who predeceased her. Ray and Helen married at 5:30 on an April morning at the Lutheran Parsonage in Middletown. Ray was known as a practical joker so marrying on the sly was his only hope of getting out of town before his friends found out about his marriage plans and turned the tables on him. Helen grew up on... Read More	Helen Marie Waters Gladhill died Sunday, April 22 at Glade Valley Nursing Facility. She was the only child of the late Guy P. Waters and Mary Estelle Younkins Waters and the much loved wife of Ray Calvin Gladhill who predeceased her. Ray and Helen married at 5:30 on an April morning at the Lutheran Parsonage in Middletown. Ray was known as a practical joker so marrying on the sly was his only hope of getting out of town before his friends found out about his marriage plans and turned the tables on him. Helen grew up on her parent's farm, Pleasant Valley on Old Hagerstown Road. She would talk about her father driving her to school with a horse and buggy and spending nights in town with relatives when the snow was too deep to travel back and forth. When she was older she would board the trolley from the back field on the farm for the trip to school. She loved relating stories about Towson State College where graduated and became a first grade teacher. After graduation she lived in Baltimore, teaching in the poorest section. Her teaching career ended with her marriage to Ray. They bought the house on East Main Street which would become known as the Gladhill Funeral Home as well as their family home. At that time embalming was done in a room at the furniture store on Walnut Street. After they married Ray, the practical joker introduced Helen to embalming at the store. He used his strongest embalming fluid with the plan that the terribly strong odor would driver her out of the room. She was determined not to succumb first and instead, he did. The embalming and casket rooms were moved to the house on Main Street around 1947. Helen was his partner and in the business, answering the phone, styling hair, dressing bodies, meeting and greeting families, setting up funerals, reporting deaths to the papers and finally getting her own Funeral Director's License in 1957. She was the heart of the business and was always read to listen to a grieving family. Together she and Ray provided a free ambulance service. She took ambulance calls as well as washed sheets and remade the cot for the next trip. Many family meals were interrupted with an ambulance call. Eventually after the death of his brothers, she became a partner with Ray in the Gladhill Furniture Store. Helen was a charter member of the Fire Company Auxillary. For a period of time, fire calls were diverted to the funeral home and she would answer the calls and set off the fire alarm. She worked at dinners for the firemen (Ray was Fire Chief for over 49 years) as well as the yearly carnivals. She taught Sunday School in the Primary Department of Zion Lutheran Church of which she was a life member. Helen was an excellent seamstress. She made patterns for dance costumes, having only a picture to bog y and then the finished costume her daughters' dance recitals. Over the years, when the grandchildren started coming, she made dolls of all sizes and clowns with colorful bodies. She crocheted doilies, purses, sweaters, baby blankets and king sized bed spreads for her family. She made beautiful afghans. Helen was always looking for a new project to crochet or sew. Her arthritis made it difficult to crochet in later life but she continued to sew and began making beautiful tapestry bags. After she lost Ray, she still continued to make her special bags out of material from the furniture store. She never wanted money for them but enjoyed making and giving them as gifts to anyone who wanted one. At 91 she made over 100 bags for Jim Nicholson at Gladhill's to use as gifts and was extremely proud to have such a project, one she completed in record time. She would say it was good to be useful. She was a voracious reader of all kinds of books. She loved feeding the birds and squirrels outside of her window. Her rose garden was a source of great pride to her. Ray and Helen have two daughters, Phyllis Larue, (married to William M. Thompson) and Betty Ray, (married to Dr. Larry Romane). She was the loving grandmother to four grandchildren: Betty Ray's children, Greg (wife Shannon) Beal and Gretchen (husband Pat Fuller), and Phyl's children; Laura Jean (husband Thomas J. Junor) an Ann Marie (husband Michael Santorios). Eight great grandchildren followed: Greg's daughters, Kaylee and Brooke, and stepdaughters Lauren and Brooke, Gretchen's sons, Benjamin, Arthur and Austin, Laura's girls; Madeline and Evelyn and Ann Marie's daughter, Fiona. She was always an interested listener when they visited. Helen also has many loving nieces and nephews in the Gladhill family. She will be missed by them all. Visitation will be Tuesday, April 24 from 7-9:00 pm at the Donald B. Thompson Funeral Home, Middletown. Funeral Services will be held from the Funeral Home on Wednesday, April 25 at 2:00 with Rev Cris Frigm will officiate. Interment will be made in Zion Lutheran Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the charity of one's choice. Pallbearers will be: Tom Junor, Michael Santorios, Larry Romane, Arthur Greene, Pat Fuller and Greg Beal. Online guestbook available at DBThompsonfuneralhome.com

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Helen Marie Waters Gladhill's memorial?
Helen Marie Waters Gladhill's memorial is located at: Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Middletown, Frederick County, USA.
When did Helen Marie Waters Gladhill death?
Helen Marie Waters Gladhill death on 22 Apr 2012 in Walkersville, Frederick County, Maryland, USA
Where are the coordinates of the Helen Marie Waters Gladhill's memorial?
Latitude: 39.4450600
Longitude: -77.5457500

Family Members:

Parent

Guy Peter Waters

(1888 - 1959)

Mary Estella Younkins Waters

(1894 - 1993)

Spouse

Ray Calvin Gladhill

(1912 - 2005)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Zion Lutheran Cemetery
Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4450600, -77.5457500

2. Christ Reformed Cemetery
Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4418297, -77.5445328

3. Asbury African Methodist Episcopal Cemetery
Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4392700, -77.5469600

4. Johnson-Ridgely Cemetery
Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4721985, -77.5168991

5. High Knob Cemetery
Gambrill South, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4511000, -77.4981000

6. Smith Family Cemetery
Braddock Heights, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4045800, -77.5316300

7. Mount Tabor Church Cemetery
Frostown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4795900, -77.5889800

8. Harmony Cemetery New
Harmony, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4944000, -77.5369000

9. Harmony Church of the Brethren Cemetery Old
Harmony, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4942700, -77.5327700

10. Christian Hershman 1st Family Cemetery
Locust Valley, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4230830, -77.6090310

11. Young Family Cemetery
Locust Valley, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4312500, -77.6156800

12. Chunn Ridgley Family Cemetery
Jefferson, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.3889800, -77.5184000

13. Locust Valley First Church of God Cemetery
Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4346000, -77.6269800

14. Saint Pauls Lutheran Church Cemetery
Myersville, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.5072600, -77.5672600

15. Pleasant View Church of the Brethren Cemetery
Burkittsville, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4028015, -77.6089020

16. Miller Family Cemetery
Highland, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.5090600, -77.5304100

17. Locust Valley Bible Church Cemetery
Middletown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4261017, -77.6264038

18. Shook Family Cemetery
Shookstown, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4362700, -77.4608000

19. Mount Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery
Myersville, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.5127983, -77.5686035

20. Getzendanner Family Cemetery
Frederick, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4182900, -77.4610700

21. Mount Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery
Feagaville, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.3893204, -77.4879837

22. Culler Family Cemetery
Jefferson, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.3739020, -77.5232550

23. Ambrose Leatherman Family Cemetery
Ellerton, Frederick County, USA
Coordinate: 39.5197400, -77.5457200

24. Zittlestown Church of God Cemetery
Zittlestown, Washington County, USA
Coordinate: 39.4878300, -77.6269200