Gladys Mae Rash passed from this world on March 10, 2019, at the age of 88, after a brave, and mercifully brief, battle with kidney cancer. She has lived the last year and a half with her son Bruce in the Portland, OR area and they shared many happy times together.
Gladys raised three sons while working at the Seattle Public Library. She worked there for nearly 50 years, and retired, after heading the Mobile Branch division for more than 25 years, as the longest term employee in the history of Seattle’s library system.
She and her husband Wayne, (who passed in 2013), lived on the Cedar River in Maple Valley, WA for over 35 years, loved their walks with their little schnauzer ‘Joey’, and traveled and camped out in every state and national park in Washington for over two decades after retiring.
She was a 1946 graduate of Franklin High School in Seattle, WA. She attended Seattle University for Library Science but met Wayne after her first year and was married before Fall term began!
Gladys volunteered for a number of organizations after retirement, including the Rainier Valley Historical Society, the King County Blood Bank, the Library Association, and was an active member in the Franklin High Alumni Association, collecting dozens of yearbooks for their archives over the years. She was a frequent visitor to the Maple Valley Senior Center and, after moving to Beaverton, Oregon, the Elsie Stuhr Senior Center, where she attended regular exercise classes right up until her passing.
She is survived by her sons Bruce and James, siblings Charlene Smith and Ted Sunderland, 5 beautiful grandchildren (and 3 step-grandchildren), 4 equally beautiful great grandchildren, (and 5 step-great grandchildren) and 1 exceedingly beautiful great, great granddaughter, as well as dozens of beloved nieces and nephews.
She was loved by everyone who ever met her, the very soul of compassion. Her son Bruce summed up her sweet and simple philosophy with these words.
"Err on the side of kindness…
Err on the side of generosity…
And when you are seen as naive for doing so,
Err on the side of forgiveness…"
She will be missed by so many…
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