Burial: Tekamah Cemetery, Tekamah, NE

Findagrave Memorial: 80905712

The Pilot Tribune 21 December 2004

Gladys Blankenship, 96

Gladys Blankenship, 96, of Tekamah, died of a stroke on Monday, Dec. 13, 2004 at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair.

Mrs. Blankenship donated her body to the Anatomical Board of the State of Nebraska, Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha, for scientific studies, so there will be no funeral. The family has plans to hold a memorial service at a later date.

Gladys Bertie Kelly was born on the family home, northeast of Tekamah, on Sept. 5, 1908 to John Franklin and Elsie May (Noah) Kelly. She was the youngest of four children.

On Jan. 15, 1924, she married Claude James Blankenship at Onawa, Iowa, crossing the Missouri River by car on the ice. The couple had three sons and five daughters.

Mrs. Blankenship had spent the last three and a half years at the Tekamah Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Jim and Joan Blankenship of Battle Creek, Mich., Teddy and Laura Blankenship of Arlington and Kelly Blankenship of Tekamah; daughters and sons-in-law, Claudine and Kermit Hansen of Eden Prairie, Minn., Donna and Jack Palmer of Tekamah, Gloria and Brian Cameron of Danville, Calif., and Janet Stillman of Las Vegas, Nev., 24 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Claude; two brothers, Clarence Devoe Kelly and Frank Herbert Kelly; a sister Ella “Dude” Gertrude (Mrs. Claude Woods); a daughter Elinor Gladys Ray’ two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~