Gladys Small

After a life well lived, Gladys Small passed away at the age of 98, in Show Low, Arizona. She was born in Bath, Maine. The sixth child of Stanley and Odile Geneau.

Gladys worked at the local department store and the U.S. Post Office while in high school. She graduated from Morse High School in 1945. She loved to go roller and ice skating as a teenager.

Gladys met the love of her life, Orville Small in March 1945 when she skipped school and work to go to the movies. Excited to start their new lives together they married on August 25, 1945. They started married life in a cottage on Popham Beach, later purchasing a sixty-seven acre farm in Woolwich, Maine where they were blessed with four sons.

In 1955 they moved the family to Phoenix, Arizona. Gladys worked for Motorola as a certified die bonder. Gladys and Orville also purchased a machine shop.

In 1971 Gladys and Orville along with their youngest son, moved to Prescott Valley, Arizona. They purchased a home and the Prescott Valley Market in 1971. They owned and managed the market until December 1975. Gladys and Orville moved back to Phoenix, Arizona in June 1976 where she worked for Air Research until her retirement.

They had purchased land in Blue Hills, Arizona in 1970. Their home was built in 1982. Blue Hills was home base for the start of many exciting motor home trips across the country with Gladys at the wheel.

In 1984 they moved back to Maine and built a cottage on Lake Damariscotta where they loved to fish and host grandchildren in the summer months.

Arizona sunshine brought them back to Sun City in 1993 where they lived until moving to Show Low, Arizona and building a home in July 1997.

Gladys was a lifelong member of Lions International Club serving as secretary. Gladys favorite activities were playing bingo at the VFW Hall and playing table games with family and friends. She enjoyed trips to Las Vegas with family and friends. Bird watching was a favorite activity in her later years.

Gladys was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-three years Orville and son Ronald. She is survived by her sons, Dana (Patty) of Arizona, (Karen, Ron's widow) of Arizona, David (Tish) of Idaho and Eugene (April) of Arizona Eleven grandchildren along with several great grandchildren.

There will be a Celebration of Life held at 2:00 P.M. Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, 2929 E. Pinnacle Peak Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85024