Gladys Louise Ambrose

  General Notes:

Gladys was always an active woman and dedicated mother. She was raised in tough times through the Great Depression and lost her father when she was thirteen, right at the peak of tough times. Her mother, Flora, was a strong and determined Scottish woman who kept the family of 11 children together by taking in laundry, growing vegetables and doing a variety of odd jobs just to keep food on the table. This young experience made Gladys the strong and caring person everyone knew her as.
Gladys attended high school at Warren G. Harding and was a star basketball player. After graduating, she worked at the GE lamp factory as a filament winder. She would comment on the "filament" of this job that involved taking a string of tungsten wire and winding it to make a light bulb filament.
During the raising of her own family in Warren, Ohio, she kept things together during WWII. After her children were all in school, she worked in the West Junior High School cafeteria to save up money to help with future college for her children.
She was a member of the German Reform Church in Warren and then the family joined the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Warren. The family moved to Beaver, PA in 1960, minus the oldest son, Dick (Jim), who left for the Air Force in 1958. She was very active in community and church activities in Beaver. She was a member of the Episcopalian Church and managed the alter set-up for services. She was a 20 year member and past president of the Tusca Ridge Garden Club, belonged to the Beaver area Heritage Foundation and was president of the Beaver Election Board.

Gladys married James Freeman Lauffer Jr., son of James Freeman Lauffer Sr. and Lucinda Ruth Fritchman, on 10 Feb 1940 in Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio. (James Freeman Lauffer Jr. was born on 7 May 1916 in Delmont, Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania, died on 13 Mar 1987 in Beaver, Beaver County, Pennsylvania and was buried on 16 Mar 1987 in Beaver Cemetery, Beaver, PA.)