Everything Nac

Gladys Marguerite Atherton

     A Family Graveside Service for Gladys Atherton of Nacogdoches will be held at Sunset Memorial Park on Saturday, March 12, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. Reverend Bill Gandin of First Methodist Church will officiate. A reception will be held afterward at First United Methodist Church in the Parlor from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

     Ms. Atherton was born in 1915, in Columbus, Indiana, and died on March 8, 2011, in Nacogdoches, Texas, at the age of 95. She was the eldest of three children of Emma Gamble Johnson and Isaac B. Johnson.

     In 1936 she graduated with a B.S. in Home Economics from South Dakota State University, where her father was a member of the faculty. She taught junior and senior high school classes and graduated with a M.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences from Iowa State University in 1940. During college and work years, she was inducted into numerous academic and professional honor societies.

     Ms. Atherton began working as the Home Service Director for a utility company in Missouri, where she presented a daily radio program on various areas of home management. The program manager was Bob Atherton, who said “she chased him until he caught her.” They married in 1942. He called her “Glad.”

     After World War II while living in Shreveport, Louisiana, the Athertons had their first child. They wanted to raise their family in a small college town, so they settled in Nacogdoches in 1948 where a second child was born. Ms. Atherton joined the Child Study Club, volunteered with the Nacogdoches Youth Center including the summer recreation program, and the Red Cross as a Gray Lady at Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital.

     In 1962 Ms. Atherton began teaching at Stephen F. Austin State University as well as studying at Texas Women’s University toward a Ph.D. At SFA she specialized in Child Development and Family Relations. She directed the nursery school at SFA as a laboratory for the classes she taught and was instrumental in the formation of the degree program in that area.

     Ms. Atherton continued to teach at SFA until 1981, when she retired and enjoyed time with her grandsons. She also resumed her pattern of volunteerism, especially through the Auxiliary of Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital volunteering over 15,000 hours. She particularly enjoyed her work and co-workers in the gift shop where money raised went in part for scholarships.

     Throughout her long adult life, Ms. Atherton’s first goal was successful marriage and parenting. Her second goal was successful lives for her children and grandchildren. Her third goal was a useful life for herself. She got what she hoped for.

     She was preceded in death by her parents, husband and siblings Irwin Johnson and Ruthmarion Becker. Ms. Atherton is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Dr. Lynn Kennedy and husband Richard Kennedy, of Albany, Georgia; her son and daughter-in-law, Rob and Ricci Atherton of Nacogdoches; grandsons, Brian Atherton, Mark Atherton, Zach Whitten, and Chris Whitten; granddaughter Lauren Whitten and two great grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister-in-law, Sarah Johnson, of Columbia, S.C. and many nieces and nephews.

     The family extends thanks to Dr. Richard Baker and his staff, LifeCare Hospice, Magnolia Court Care partners, and especially to Rose Whitehead, Susie Shaw, Dorothy Lockett, Dana Thorne, and Belinda Wallace, all of whom kept Gladys safe and comfortable during her long illness.

     In lieu of flowers Ms. Atherton requested the donations be sent to the Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital Auxiliary or First United Methodist Church.