Gladys was born in Monclova, Lucas, Ohio on August 8, 1916; the first surviving and the second of nine children born to Lloyd Thomas and Harriet Sophia Roach Harris.
Growing up, she was the darling of all her maternal uncles. They nicknamed her Midgie, because she was so tiny.
Six days after her eighteenth birthday, Gladys eloped with Ralph Edward Bash to LaGrange, Indiana, where they began their marriage of nearly 40 years that was ended only by Ralph's death.
Ralph and Gladys were the parents of four children.
On the 26th of December, Gladys passed away easily and gently, at the home of her eldest child, with both her oldest daughter and her youngest son at her side. Her daughter said, "I could ask no more, since she had suffered much."
From niece Connie:
My Aunt Gladys made wonderful apple pies, and the very best escalloped potatoes and ham I have ever eaten. I could hardly wait for family reunions because I knew those potatoes were going to be there. I don't remember there ever being any leftovers!
I would often stay with my Aunt Gladys and she was wonderful to me. She would let me have coffee, which I would fill with sugar and cream, and still not drink. She always let me have it anyway!
From grandson, Eric:
My sisters and I always considered Grandma Bash our cool grandma, because she was always doing something with us kids, and always stayed current on world events.
Grandma Bash would come visit for extended visits, and we loved it. I still remember making what seemed like thousands of Christmas cookies one year when we lived at Georgetown. We kids helped decorate them. Those were the best cookies I have ever eaten in my life! To this day that kind are my favorite, even though they are just sugar cookies.
When we went to visit Grandma in Hillsdale, we would get into the cupboards and find the plastic drinking glass with our name on it from among all the names of my cousins. I always felt so special having my own cup at Grandma's. [Granddaughter Joyce writes: the drink cups were aluminum (not plastic) - they were brightly colored and they meant we were at Grandma's. I can still smell the magic marker. Granddaughter Beth writes: No Joyce...there were aluminum cups...but also plastic ones with our names in magic marker... So you are both right... Made me cry to read it... I will miss her forever....]
Later, when I was a teenager, she would come visit for the summer and drive me nuts. She was a very strong minded woman, and never hesitated to state her opinion. Nor was she shy about defending her position if challenged!
She lived with Mom and Dad the year before her death, and I am glad I got to know her as an adult that last year.
Notes from "Ramblings" by Lloyd Thomas Harris, Jr., June 6, 1996:
I remember, when I was very young, my sister Gladys was allowed to take me to school with her for some reason or another, and I rewarded her kindness by messing my pants and embarrassing her no end.
Throughout my life, until I left home for good, Gladys was very kind to me. She was just enough older than me to be able to take care of me when I was a toddler, and as near as I can tell, there was never any resentment on her part for having to do so. She was always a source of support for me and I could always go to her with my problems and she would be a comfort to me.
After graduating high school my dad and I got on the outs and I felt I had to leave home. Gladys and her husband, Ralph, took me in, even though they really could not afford it.
In later years, after I retired, and she was a widow in declining health, I lived near her and tried to pay her back for her many kindnesses. I would take her places she needed to go, and I would buy her some of the niceties she wouldn't buy herself. But, even after that I felt indebted to her.
Daughter Eleanore writes:
Thanks to everyone who gives (blood), and to those who gave many years ago, my mother was blessed with extra days of sunshine, time to stop and smell the roses, a chance to see many of her grandchildren come into this ole world, days we could tell her we loved her, days of laughter and days of tears.
Growing up, she was the darling of all her maternal uncles. They nicknamed her Midgie, because she was so tiny.
Six days after her eighteenth birthday, Gladys eloped with Ralph Edward Bash to LaGrange, Indiana, where they began their marriage of nearly 40 years that was ended only by Ralph's death.
Ralph and Gladys were the parents of four children.
On the 26th of December, Gladys passed away easily and gently, at the home of her eldest child, with both her oldest daughter and her youngest son at her side. Her daughter said, "I could ask no more, since she had suffered much."
From niece Connie:
My Aunt Gladys made wonderful apple pies, and the very best escalloped potatoes and ham I have ever eaten. I could hardly wait for family reunions because I knew those potatoes were going to be there. I don't remember there ever being any leftovers!
I would often stay with my Aunt Gladys and she was wonderful to me. She would let me have coffee, which I would fill with sugar and cream, and still not drink. She always let me have it anyway!
From grandson, Eric:
My sisters and I always considered Grandma Bash our cool grandma, because she was always doing something with us kids, and always stayed current on world events.
Grandma Bash would come visit for extended visits, and we loved it. I still remember making what seemed like thousands of Christmas cookies one year when we lived at Georgetown. We kids helped decorate them. Those were the best cookies I have ever eaten in my life! To this day that kind are my favorite, even though they are just sugar cookies.
When we went to visit Grandma in Hillsdale, we would get into the cupboards and find the plastic drinking glass with our name on it from among all the names of my cousins. I always felt so special having my own cup at Grandma's. [Granddaughter Joyce writes: the drink cups were aluminum (not plastic) - they were brightly colored and they meant we were at Grandma's. I can still smell the magic marker. Granddaughter Beth writes: No Joyce...there were aluminum cups...but also plastic ones with our names in magic marker... So you are both right... Made me cry to read it... I will miss her forever....]
Later, when I was a teenager, she would come visit for the summer and drive me nuts. She was a very strong minded woman, and never hesitated to state her opinion. Nor was she shy about defending her position if challenged!
She lived with Mom and Dad the year before her death, and I am glad I got to know her as an adult that last year.
Notes from "Ramblings" by Lloyd Thomas Harris, Jr., June 6, 1996:
I remember, when I was very young, my sister Gladys was allowed to take me to school with her for some reason or another, and I rewarded her kindness by messing my pants and embarrassing her no end.
Throughout my life, until I left home for good, Gladys was very kind to me. She was just enough older than me to be able to take care of me when I was a toddler, and as near as I can tell, there was never any resentment on her part for having to do so. She was always a source of support for me and I could always go to her with my problems and she would be a comfort to me.
After graduating high school my dad and I got on the outs and I felt I had to leave home. Gladys and her husband, Ralph, took me in, even though they really could not afford it.
In later years, after I retired, and she was a widow in declining health, I lived near her and tried to pay her back for her many kindnesses. I would take her places she needed to go, and I would buy her some of the niceties she wouldn't buy herself. But, even after that I felt indebted to her.
Daughter Eleanore writes:
Thanks to everyone who gives (blood), and to those who gave many years ago, my mother was blessed with extra days of sunshine, time to stop and smell the roses, a chance to see many of her grandchildren come into this ole world, days we could tell her we loved her, days of laughter and days of tears.
Gladys was born in Monclova, Lucas, Ohio on August 8, 1916; the first surviving and the second of nine children born to Lloyd Thomas and Harriet Sophia Roach Harris.
Growing up, she was the darling of all her maternal uncles. They nicknamed her Midgie, because she was so tiny.
Six days after her eighteenth birthday, Gladys eloped with Ralph Edward Bash to LaGrange, Indiana, where they began their marriage of nearly 40 years that was ended only by Ralph's death.
Ralph and Gladys were the parents of four children.
On the 26th of December, Gladys passed away easily and gently, at the home of her eldest child, with both her oldest daughter and her youngest son at her side. Her daughter said, "I could ask no more, since she had suffered much."
From niece Connie:
My Aunt Gladys made wonderful apple pies, and the very best escalloped potatoes and ham I have ever eaten. I could hardly wait for family reunions because I knew those potatoes were going to be there. I don't remember there ever being any leftovers!
I would often stay with my Aunt Gladys and she was wonderful to me. She would let me have coffee, which I would fill with sugar and cream, and still not drink. She always let me have it anyway!
From grandson, Eric:
My sisters and I always considered Grandma Bash our cool grandma, because she was always doing something with us kids, and always stayed current on world events.
Grandma Bash would come visit for extended visits, and we loved it. I still remember making what seemed like thousands of Christmas cookies one year when we lived at Georgetown. We kids helped decorate them. Those were the best cookies I have ever eaten in my life! To this day that kind are my favorite, even though they are just sugar cookies.
When we went to visit Grandma in Hillsdale, we would get into the cupboards and find the plastic drinking glass with our name on it from among all the names of my cousins. I always felt so special having my own cup at Grandma's. [Granddaughter Joyce writes: the drink cups were aluminum (not plastic) - they were brightly colored and they meant we were at Grandma's. I can still smell the magic marker. Granddaughter Beth writes: No Joyce...there were aluminum cups...but also plastic ones with our names in magic marker... So you are both right... Made me cry to read it... I will miss her forever....]
Later, when I was a teenager, she would come visit for the summer and drive me nuts. She was a very strong minded woman, and never hesitated to state her opinion. Nor was she shy about defending her position if challenged!
She lived with Mom and Dad the year before her death, and I am glad I got to know her as an adult that last year.
Notes from "Ramblings" by Lloyd Thomas Harris, Jr., June 6, 1996:
I remember, when I was very young, my sister Gladys was allowed to take me to school with her for some reason or another, and I rewarded her kindness by messing my pants and embarrassing her no end.
Throughout my life, until I left home for good, Gladys was very kind to me. She was just enough older than me to be able to take care of me when I was a toddler, and as near as I can tell, there was never any resentment on her part for having to do so. She was always a source of support for me and I could always go to her with my problems and she would be a comfort to me.
After graduating high school my dad and I got on the outs and I felt I had to leave home. Gladys and her husband, Ralph, took me in, even though they really could not afford it.
In later years, after I retired, and she was a widow in declining health, I lived near her and tried to pay her back for her many kindnesses. I would take her places she needed to go, and I would buy her some of the niceties she wouldn't buy herself. But, even after that I felt indebted to her.
Daughter Eleanore writes:
Thanks to everyone who gives (blood), and to those who gave many years ago, my mother was blessed with extra days of sunshine, time to stop and smell the roses, a chance to see many of her grandchildren come into this ole world, days we could tell her we loved her, days of laughter and days of tears.
Growing up, she was the darling of all her maternal uncles. They nicknamed her Midgie, because she was so tiny.
Six days after her eighteenth birthday, Gladys eloped with Ralph Edward Bash to LaGrange, Indiana, where they began their marriage of nearly 40 years that was ended only by Ralph's death.
Ralph and Gladys were the parents of four children.
On the 26th of December, Gladys passed away easily and gently, at the home of her eldest child, with both her oldest daughter and her youngest son at her side. Her daughter said, "I could ask no more, since she had suffered much."
From niece Connie:
My Aunt Gladys made wonderful apple pies, and the very best escalloped potatoes and ham I have ever eaten. I could hardly wait for family reunions because I knew those potatoes were going to be there. I don't remember there ever being any leftovers!
I would often stay with my Aunt Gladys and she was wonderful to me. She would let me have coffee, which I would fill with sugar and cream, and still not drink. She always let me have it anyway!
From grandson, Eric:
My sisters and I always considered Grandma Bash our cool grandma, because she was always doing something with us kids, and always stayed current on world events.
Grandma Bash would come visit for extended visits, and we loved it. I still remember making what seemed like thousands of Christmas cookies one year when we lived at Georgetown. We kids helped decorate them. Those were the best cookies I have ever eaten in my life! To this day that kind are my favorite, even though they are just sugar cookies.
When we went to visit Grandma in Hillsdale, we would get into the cupboards and find the plastic drinking glass with our name on it from among all the names of my cousins. I always felt so special having my own cup at Grandma's. [Granddaughter Joyce writes: the drink cups were aluminum (not plastic) - they were brightly colored and they meant we were at Grandma's. I can still smell the magic marker. Granddaughter Beth writes: No Joyce...there were aluminum cups...but also plastic ones with our names in magic marker... So you are both right... Made me cry to read it... I will miss her forever....]
Later, when I was a teenager, she would come visit for the summer and drive me nuts. She was a very strong minded woman, and never hesitated to state her opinion. Nor was she shy about defending her position if challenged!
She lived with Mom and Dad the year before her death, and I am glad I got to know her as an adult that last year.
Notes from "Ramblings" by Lloyd Thomas Harris, Jr., June 6, 1996:
I remember, when I was very young, my sister Gladys was allowed to take me to school with her for some reason or another, and I rewarded her kindness by messing my pants and embarrassing her no end.
Throughout my life, until I left home for good, Gladys was very kind to me. She was just enough older than me to be able to take care of me when I was a toddler, and as near as I can tell, there was never any resentment on her part for having to do so. She was always a source of support for me and I could always go to her with my problems and she would be a comfort to me.
After graduating high school my dad and I got on the outs and I felt I had to leave home. Gladys and her husband, Ralph, took me in, even though they really could not afford it.
In later years, after I retired, and she was a widow in declining health, I lived near her and tried to pay her back for her many kindnesses. I would take her places she needed to go, and I would buy her some of the niceties she wouldn't buy herself. But, even after that I felt indebted to her.
Daughter Eleanore writes:
Thanks to everyone who gives (blood), and to those who gave many years ago, my mother was blessed with extra days of sunshine, time to stop and smell the roses, a chance to see many of her grandchildren come into this ole world, days we could tell her we loved her, days of laughter and days of tears.
Gravesite Details
Grandchildren, Loretta Bash and Gregory Bailey are buried beside Ralph and Gladys Bash
Family Members
Siblings
