“She lived a quiet life”

By Carolyn Reid

Gladys Frazier lived alone at her home in Falmouth until she was 103, moving to River Valley Nursing Home only when her daughter moved away. And that is where she passed last Wednesday night, July 26, at 107 years, eight months, and 25 days, if the count is correct.

As previous articles about her life have attested, she did not just exist in those 107 plus years; she truly lived.

For perspective, Mrs. Gladys lived through the following:  World War I, the Spanish flu epidemic, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and World War II, the Korean War, Kennedy’s assassination, Martin Luther King’s assassination, Robert Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War and the Cold War, the moon landings and other space flights (and disasters), the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11--and these are only the ones that come readily to mind;  Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden; inventions and advancements such as the rise of automobiles and airplanes, television, telephones, computers…

She shared some of her own memories of those advances when she spoke to Scott Collins close to her 104th birthday in 2019, her first at River Valley.

“Her first memory is one of attending a one-room schoolhouse up through the eighth grade.

“’All of the students, no matter the grade, had the same teacher,’ Mrs. Frazier said, laughing. ‘That wouldn’t happen these days.’”

Later, as she spoke to Nila Harris before her 107th birthday last October, she said she actually attended a two-room schoolhouse.

But the story she told Collins of the car did not change. “Another early memory she shared the first car she could remember.

“’My dad’s first car was a Ford. It only had one seat in it.’”

She also recalled what was likely the first car accident she ever heard of: her father ran that car over the bank as he went to pick Mrs. Gladys’s aunt up off the train.

She recalled the first radio her family had came along after they moved to Falmouth from Myers, Nicholas County, KY. She was 10. When they moved into the house at 412 Robbins, they had no electricity or running water, either.

The family bought a television in 1951, but she saw her first movie in the theater in Falmouth before that came along. She shared with Collins the movie cost ten cents, and when she saw a horse and wagon coming across the screen, she thought it would hit her.

Mrs. Gladys graduated from Falmouth High School in 1934, but not before she had played basketball for four years. And as is characteristic of so many athletes, she recognized as one of a few honor students in her class.

After graduation, she was trained as a beautician. She worked in the field, doing pin curls and finger waves among other styles for women in those days. She worked on Main Street in Falmouth and also in Brooksville. The shops were owned by Irene Myerson.

She worked there until she was married, and she and her husband moved to Newport. Later, they returned to Falmouth, and she worked in Harvey Ammerman’s Variety Store (in both locations) and in other stores in the city. She had never wanted to leave in the first place, she shared with Harris last fall.

Somewhere in that time, they had two daughters. Mrs. Gladys lost them both before she passed.

On her 102nd birthday, Rep. Mark Hart made her a Kentucky Colonel. When she moved to River Valley at 103, she used her creativity by participating in craft time and by coloring. Many who got to know her received some of the beautiful pictures she colored, especially when Covid isolated everyone. She was on the scene for crafting events in the activity room when the nursing home opened back up, and she could make her items just as so-so as the finger waves and pin curls she made in her early years.

Her competitive spirit came through. She loved UK, and she loved playing games in the nursing home, playing multiple sheets during BINGO and CARDO, a game similar to BINGO. Barton Reid, who often helps call the games for CARDO, said she could get competitive in spite of “just liking to play the games.”

“She was meticulous, too,” he said. She could keep up with her multiple cards, not missing a call on any of them.

As with any strong woman, she had her preferences, and her adoring great-nephew stayed on top of that. Darryl Ammerman recalls being with her to celebrate when she turned a century. “On her 100th birthday celebration, which was the Sunday before her actual birthday, it was said she loved the blackberry cobbler at Cracker Barrel. On her birthday, I took her a blackberry cobbler. In visiting her later, she asked me, ‘If I live to be 101, will you bring me another blackberry cobbler?’

“She was on the eighth cobbler.

“Her 104th birthday was her first at River Valley. I took the cobbler to her. The next day she called me and said they lost the cobbler. After a few calls, they located the cobbler. All was good.”

He also got a call just a few weeks ago. Mrs. Gladys was distressed because the soda fountain was down, and she could not get her Diet Pepsi. Ammerman took her Diet Pepsi on the spot. She said that was just what she needed. For a girl who grew up not having the luxury of such drinks, a fact she shared in 2019, she made sure she made up for it later in life!

Ammerman saw the love everyone had for his great-aunt, and he understood why. He saw the gentle, caring spirit she shared with him and with everyone else she met. Her caregivers loved her as family, too, and were drawn to her.

He had an explanation for it. “She lived a quiet life.”