GLADYS TANKERSLEY BAILEY

One hundred years old!  Gladys celebrates her 100^th with friends and family at the Cullman (AL) Civic Center on December 28^th, 2013.  With only a few short exceptions Cullman County has been her home all her life.  She is the last remaining member of the Cullman High School Class of 1931.

What makes Gladys so special is the fact that she still has a keen mind, interested in everything, reading books and newspapers, attending church regularly,  playing cards at the Crane Hill Senior Center twice a week, and pretty well keeping up with her immediate and extended family.  Now that takes in a large number of people, because Gladys is the eldest of twelve children born to Judge and Virgie Fowler Tankersley.  She has outlived six of her siblings.  Her health isn’t great but she rarely complains, and gets around pretty well with a walker.  It is her mind that has remained young and vibrant.

When Gladys finished High School she had a scholarship to Spencer Business School in New Orleans.  Her studies there were cut short when our youngest sister Jo (Morris)was born, and because her mother was hospitalized for more than a month Gladys was summoned home to take care of the new baby, and assist in marshalling the other kids in the family to survival.  That was in March of 1933, shortly after the family had their farm and home foreclosed, an altogether too common an occurrence in the Great Depression.

Gladys’ High School sweetheart, Kert Bailey, had joined the Navy.  They married in 1936 and for a brief time lived and worked in Southern California.  That was where their first child, Betty, was born.   Kert was called back into the Navy during WWII, but after that he became a Rural Route mail carrier in Crane Hill, and  they built a new home in the country.  That is where Gladys lives alone, today.  Son Harold was born just before the war started, and completed their family. Married to Adonis (Long) they live in Decatur.

Both Gladys and Kert were always helpful in their community, always willing to lend a helping hand.  Kert died in 1994, at age 85.  Gladys elected to stay on in their home place, so daughter Betty and her husband Charles Balch built a home across the country road from her when they retired.

Gladys was always more than just a ‘stay at home’ mom.  In turn she taught school, worked in a doctor’s office, became a helper for the Home Demonstration Agent, and was always involved in her church and community, especially in the interests of her children.  In my mind she was always proficient in everything.  When I was a sophomore at the University of Alabama and was invited to a prom, I called on Gladys.  The sisters’ hand-me-downs which were the mainstay of my wardrobe did not include an evening gown.  A few days before the formal I received a package: a red and white checked taffeta evening dress which fit perfectly!  It was admired, and eventually worn, by many of my friends.  Again, years later, when I had returned to the University with an NDEA Fellowship for a Masters Degree in Special Education I was to attend an international Conference in Toronto, Canada.  Again, without my being there for fitting, she made a beautiful salmon colored wool jersey dress and sent it for my trip.  I‘ll bet each of my siblings could relate ‘Gladys stories” to rival mine.

Gladys passed some of her talents and her intellect down to her children and six   grandchildren, almost all of whom are college graduates, a few with advanced degrees, one a doctorate. Among the younger generation are nine great grand children and two great-great grandchildren.

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I’ll bet they all know how to cook, or will soon, and they know a great many other life skills.  Gladys skills include knitting and crocheting, quilting, baking, canning, gardening, and flower grower extraordinaire.  For each child and grandchild she has made quilts, crocheted  table cloths and has always been a wise counsel.  When I visited her recently she had just completed another crocheted throw, for herself this time.  “Oh, it has some mistakes”, she said.  I couldn’t find any.

Did I make it clear?  All relatives, especially close ones, are expected to attend the BIRTHDAY PARTY.