Mildred Wald

Mildred Jane “Midge” Wald passed away peacefully in her sleep early on the morning of Wednesday, May 12, 2021. She was 98 years of age. Her funeral service will be at 10:30 A.M. on Monday, May 24 at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home in Temple with Dr. Tom Robbins officiating. Graveside services will be at 2 P.M. Monday at the Central Texas Veterans Cemetery in Killeen. Visitation will be held the day before the funeral from 3 to 5 P.M. on Sunday, May 23 at Scanio-Harper Funeral home.

Midge was born January 1, 1923, to Sheldon Ellsworth and Elizabeth Kulp Haines in Daguscahonda, Elk County, Pennsylvania. She was the second oldest of four children, all of whom preceded her in death. Midge graduated from Nanticoke High School in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania and Kings County Hospital School of Nursing in Brooklyn, New York. She met the love of her life, Leon Yale Wald, on a blind date to see Frank Sinatra perform at the Paramount Theater in Times Square. Lee was a sailor in the Merchant Marine, and Midge was a student nurse. They married on January 21, 1944, in Nanticoke when Midge was 21 years and 21 days old. Their only child Linda Elizabeth was born 3 years later.

Midge and Lee lived primarily in the New York-Pennsylvania-Maryland area for the first 19 years of their marriage. During this time Lee became a Coast Guard officer, and Midge worked as a registered nurse, preferring the autonomy of public health nursing to hospital or clinic nursing. In 1955 or ‘56 they bought a small farm with a pre-Civil War stone house near Gettysburg, PA and spent nearly every weekend they lived there doing projects to improve it. In 1963 Lee was transferred to Port Arthur, Texas, and they began a new phase of their lives. During the next two decades they lived in Groves, TX; Honolulu, HI; New Orleans, LA; St. Louis, MO; and Washington, DC. Both Midge and Lee embraced the military lifestyle, with Midge becoming extremely active in the Officers’ Wives’ Club wherever they were stationed, and Lee attaining the rank of Commander in the Coast Guard. Eventually they retired to their 13-acre farm in Pennsylvania, which they always considered to be their real home.

Linda and her family moved to Temple in 1982, and Midge and Lee made the difficult decision to sell their beloved Pennsylvania farm in order to live closer to Linda and their three grandchildren. They first lived in Cibolo, TX and then moved to Temple in 1987. Midge and Lee traveled nationally and internationally in retirement, enjoying RV trips and numerous ocean cruises. Midge was an active member of the Benevolent, Patriotic Order of DOES and a volunteer at the Temple Community Clinic.

Midge was a lifelong Methodist. Both joined Belton First United Methodist Church upon moving to Temple and later switched to Seventh Street Methodist / Oak Park UMC in Temple. In their later years they joined Linda and her family at the First United Methodist Church of Temple.

Midge was preceded in death by her parents Sheldon and Elizabeth Haines; her husband of 64 years, Lee; her sister Elizabeth “Betty” Latimer; her brothers Sheldon Haines, Jr. and George Haines, Sr.; and her nephews George Haines, Jr. and Michael Latimer. She is survived by her daughter Linda and husband Dr. Jeff Ray Gibson, Jr. of Temple; her grandson Jeremy and wife Melanie Bond of Ann Arbor, MI; granddaughter Amanda and husband Scott Welch of Orlando, FL; granddaughter Kathryn and husband Jordan Kleinsmith of Milan, MI; great-grandson Jordan Bond; great-granddaughters Ryan, Sophie, and Helen Kleinsmith; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Should friends desire, flowers may be sent to Scanio-Harper Funeral Home or memorial donations may be made in Midge’s name to the Temple Community Clinic, where she donated her time as a nurse (P.O. Box 92, Temple, TX 76503, https://templecommunityclinic.org).