Post by CherieKropp on Sept 20, 2014 16:58:16 GMT -5
NOTE: I was given permission from hberry to post this on her behalf...
Her graveside service was held September 19, 2014, under the direction of Acheson & Graham Garden of Prayer Mortuary, Riverside, California.
Obituary of Mary Ann Gale
Mary Ann Gale was born on May 23, 1921 in Crestline, Ohio and passed away on Sunday, September 14, 2014 at her daughter’s home in Riverside, California. She was predeceased by her parents, Mary and Joseph Berg; her sister Ann Parsons, brother-in-law, Curt Parsons; and their son Rick. She is survived by her son Wayne Wilson and wife Laura; her daughter Lorraine Armstrong and husband Jeff; and one granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.
In February of 1945, Mary Ann married W. Lynn Wilson, a sailor in the U.S. Navy stationed in Charlottesville, West Virginia. Their son Wayne was born in June, 1946, and shortly thereafter the Navy transferred the family to Seattle, Washington. Mary Ann was widowed on May 29, 1947, leaving her with a year-old son to support.
On January 28, 1949, Mary Ann married Warren L. Gale in Zillah, Washington. Sometime later, they moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Warren worked as a janitor for Mary Ann’s mother while attending college. Their daughter Lorraine was born in December, 1952, and in December of 1953, Warren obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Television Engineering. In April of 1956, General Dynamics moved the family to Pomona, California, where they stayed until 1965 when Warren and Mary Ann moved to Riverside County. Riverside remained home base for Warren and Mary Ann, and she was widowed again on May 16, 2008. Mary Ann maintained her own apartment until she moved in with her daughter and son in law three weeks before she passed away at the age of 93.
In reviewing Mom’s long life, I see a character shaped not only by the depression and WW II, but by a desire to learn and achieve--a desire that was often thwarted by circumstances. Mom was an avid reader, and she helped make readers out of us. She obtained a library card for each of us and spent hours helping us pick out good books to read. However, she also warned against reading Steinbeck because he wrote about men who sat around in their undershirts.
Sometimes what she read made life interesting. A decorating book suggested that your front door should reflect the personality of the occupants, so she painted our front door a bright, glossy orange—despite the fact that Dad was anything but a bright, glossy orange kind of guy.
A newspaper article noted that Jacquie Kennedy grew up discussing cultural events around the dinner table, so she determined that we too should have cultural events with dinner. Fortunately, she gave up on that when Dad proved as culturally disinclined as Wayne and I.
She had high hopes for her children—hopes that we would someday be normal. We often heard the lament ‘why can’t you just be normal?’ We thought we were, but apparently, she had a different kind of normal in mind. She loved us anyway, but she couldn’t resist pointing out all the normal kids we knew.
In her files, I found a note in her meticulous Palmer handwriting with the words ‘Psalms 16: 5-6 for my funeral.’ Mom’s life wasn’t always easy, and God’s providential care and loving promises would have been such a comfort to her. She gave her life to the Lord on January 19, 1947 in a gospel meeting held by two women ministers from the Christian Conventions fellowship. Her father in law gave her a Bible the next week, and as she had never had a Bible, she devoured it from front to back as she would any book. She often told of running downstairs to share a verse with a lady friend in the same apartment building, thrilled by what she was reading. Genesis 49:22 “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall” was a favorite verse from those early days of discovery.
After Dad died, she took computer classes, learned Tai Chi, and ‘I’ll google that’ became a regular part of her vocabulary. She also bought a MacArthur study bible, which was an immense help to her spiritually. Her later years were marked by an increasing desire to know more about God’s Word, and we spent precious time together during the final months of her life studying the Bible. After her stroke, she couldn’t read well, and she loved hearing me read the Bible out loud--she said it went straight into her heart that way.
She came close to death twice during her various hospital stays, and after the first such crisis, we read through the gospel of John, amazed that God so loved the world He sent his only begotten Son; glad for the reminder that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent; and humbled by a Savior who came to lay down His life for the sheep. After her second brush with death, we read through Galatians, relieved by the reminder that we are not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. Once she moved in with us, we read Ephesians 1, 2 and 3, and Mom was comforted by Paul’s teaching that we are God’s workmanship, saved by grace through faith in Jesus and sealed by the Holy Spirit as a down payment on our inheritance. In her final days, she loved to hear me quote John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
As I sat by her in those final hours, I was reminded of Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” As a believer, she was, start to finish, a new creation in Christ by the grace of God.
Her graveside service was held September 19, 2014, under the direction of Acheson & Graham Garden of Prayer Mortuary, Riverside, California.
Obituary of Mary Ann Gale
Mary Ann Gale was born on May 23, 1921 in Crestline, Ohio and passed away on Sunday, September 14, 2014 at her daughter’s home in Riverside, California. She was predeceased by her parents, Mary and Joseph Berg; her sister Ann Parsons, brother-in-law, Curt Parsons; and their son Rick. She is survived by her son Wayne Wilson and wife Laura; her daughter Lorraine Armstrong and husband Jeff; and one granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.
In February of 1945, Mary Ann married W. Lynn Wilson, a sailor in the U.S. Navy stationed in Charlottesville, West Virginia. Their son Wayne was born in June, 1946, and shortly thereafter the Navy transferred the family to Seattle, Washington. Mary Ann was widowed on May 29, 1947, leaving her with a year-old son to support.
On January 28, 1949, Mary Ann married Warren L. Gale in Zillah, Washington. Sometime later, they moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Warren worked as a janitor for Mary Ann’s mother while attending college. Their daughter Lorraine was born in December, 1952, and in December of 1953, Warren obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Television Engineering. In April of 1956, General Dynamics moved the family to Pomona, California, where they stayed until 1965 when Warren and Mary Ann moved to Riverside County. Riverside remained home base for Warren and Mary Ann, and she was widowed again on May 16, 2008. Mary Ann maintained her own apartment until she moved in with her daughter and son in law three weeks before she passed away at the age of 93.
In reviewing Mom’s long life, I see a character shaped not only by the depression and WW II, but by a desire to learn and achieve--a desire that was often thwarted by circumstances. Mom was an avid reader, and she helped make readers out of us. She obtained a library card for each of us and spent hours helping us pick out good books to read. However, she also warned against reading Steinbeck because he wrote about men who sat around in their undershirts.
Sometimes what she read made life interesting. A decorating book suggested that your front door should reflect the personality of the occupants, so she painted our front door a bright, glossy orange—despite the fact that Dad was anything but a bright, glossy orange kind of guy.
A newspaper article noted that Jacquie Kennedy grew up discussing cultural events around the dinner table, so she determined that we too should have cultural events with dinner. Fortunately, she gave up on that when Dad proved as culturally disinclined as Wayne and I.
She had high hopes for her children—hopes that we would someday be normal. We often heard the lament ‘why can’t you just be normal?’ We thought we were, but apparently, she had a different kind of normal in mind. She loved us anyway, but she couldn’t resist pointing out all the normal kids we knew.
In her files, I found a note in her meticulous Palmer handwriting with the words ‘Psalms 16: 5-6 for my funeral.’ Mom’s life wasn’t always easy, and God’s providential care and loving promises would have been such a comfort to her. She gave her life to the Lord on January 19, 1947 in a gospel meeting held by two women ministers from the Christian Conventions fellowship. Her father in law gave her a Bible the next week, and as she had never had a Bible, she devoured it from front to back as she would any book. She often told of running downstairs to share a verse with a lady friend in the same apartment building, thrilled by what she was reading. Genesis 49:22 “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall” was a favorite verse from those early days of discovery.
After Dad died, she took computer classes, learned Tai Chi, and ‘I’ll google that’ became a regular part of her vocabulary. She also bought a MacArthur study bible, which was an immense help to her spiritually. Her later years were marked by an increasing desire to know more about God’s Word, and we spent precious time together during the final months of her life studying the Bible. After her stroke, she couldn’t read well, and she loved hearing me read the Bible out loud--she said it went straight into her heart that way.
She came close to death twice during her various hospital stays, and after the first such crisis, we read through the gospel of John, amazed that God so loved the world He sent his only begotten Son; glad for the reminder that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent; and humbled by a Savior who came to lay down His life for the sheep. After her second brush with death, we read through Galatians, relieved by the reminder that we are not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. Once she moved in with us, we read Ephesians 1, 2 and 3, and Mom was comforted by Paul’s teaching that we are God’s workmanship, saved by grace through faith in Jesus and sealed by the Holy Spirit as a down payment on our inheritance. In her final days, she loved to hear me quote John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
As I sat by her in those final hours, I was reminded of Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” As a believer, she was, start to finish, a new creation in Christ by the grace of God.