Gladys P. Mease

Gladys Price Nyce Mease, 94, of Goshen, died May 21, 2018, at Greencroft Healthcare.

Gladys was born on November 27, 1923 in Vernfield, Pennsylvania, the oldest child and only daughter of Abraham Lincoln Godshall and Anna Alderfer Price Nyce. She grew up in that small Pennsylvania Dutch community as a tomboy, playing baseball, tennis and croquet with her many cousins; riding a bicycle; roller skating; climbing trees and walking on stilts. Her first three years of education were in a one-room schoolhouse. She pitched overhand for the softball team at Souderton High School. In high school and at Elizabethtown College in PA, she sang in mixed quartets and ladies’ trios. After teaching English and social studies for one year at Souderton Junior-Senior High School in PA, she earned a Masters in Religious Education at Bethany Biblical Seminary in Chicago. There she met Gerald “Jerry” Mease, the love of her life, while washing dishes in the seminary kitchen. On June 12, 1948, when she married Jerry under the rose arbor in her mother’s flower garden, she got her “MRS.” along with the official M.R.E. degree.

Gladys and Jerry made homes for their three daughters in Iowa and Kansas as Jerry moved to different pastorates in the Church of the Brethren. His last ministry started in 1981 at Rock Run Church of the Brethren, Goshen, Indiana. Gladys’ role in the churches was to lead hymns and junior choir, direct Vacation Bible School and type weekly bulletins and church directories. Working with two cousins, Gladys combined her interest in genealogy with her writing skills to compile and publish two books in 1985 and 1991 on the ancestors and descendants of their Price and Nyce grandparents. She used her softball skills to pitch on a town team. Following the example of her mother, she pieced quilts for her daughters and canned and froze vegetables from a large garden. Gladys and Jerry enjoyed trips to Brethren annual conferences, the Holy Land of Israel, and Germany, where they visited the family of Mechthild Banschbach, their 1951-52 exchange student.

After Jerry died in 1992, Gladys continued his practice of taking beautiful photos of nature, family and friends. In 1997, she moved to Greencroft, a Mennonite senior housing community. While participating in spelling bees and volunteering to type manuscripts, she met several dear friends. She volunteered as a hostess at the New Windsor Brethren Conference Center in Maryland several times with Norma Riley, who was also her co-president of the West Goshen Church of the Brethren Women’s Fellowship for many years. She also served as a church deacon. Another volunteer job was packaging shipments for the local office of Heifer International. Her many friends looked forward to receiving cards from her on birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.

Gladys is survived by daughters, Leanna Jo (William) Povilaitis of Landing, New Jersey, Karin Elaine Grimes of Oak Park, Illinois, and Glenda Lynn (David) Grove of Unionville, Iowa; grandchildren, Christopher (Laura) Grimes, Kimberly Grimes, Eric and Adam Grove; great-grandson, William Grimes; brother Lloyd (Georgianna) Nyce; and sister-in-law Marguerite Nyce. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Gerald Ralph Henry Mease, brothers Albert and Glenn Nyce, and son-in-law Murray Grimes.

Interment will be in West Goshen Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at noon on Tuesday, May 29, at West Goshen Church of the Brethren, 1200 Berkey Ave., Goshen. Instead of flowers, memorials may be sent to West Goshen Church of the Brethren or Heifer International ( http://www.heifer.org/ ).