Gladys A. Pabst

Gladys was born to Peter and Elizabeth Nathe on April 16, 1929, in Meire Grove, Minn., the oldest of six children.

The family moved west in 1931 and settled in Clarkston, where Gladys and the other children were raised. She attended Holy Family Catholic School and graduated from Clarkston High School in 1948.

After graduation, she went to work for Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Co. in September 1948 as a telephone operator, and worked for the company for the better part of 12 years in Lewiston, Reno, Nev., and Santa Barbara, Calif. Anyone who knew Gladys would know that this was the perfect job for her "people personality" and gift of conversation. She also worked for a short time for the Spokane Chronicle and Review in Spokane.

She married Ed Lang in August 1952, and they had three sons, Craig, Kenneth James and Stephen Joseph, the latter two passing at birth. The marriage ended in divorce in 1956. She then married Richard Pabst in April 1958, and they had one daughter, Brenda.

The family lived in Pocatello from 1960 until 1968, when they returned to Lewiston, where the family remained, and she has lived there since in the family home.

Gladys was a lifelong member of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, and most recently, All Saints Catholic Church. She was very generous with her time and talents in various church ministries to include St. Mary's League, Catholic Daughters, church bazaars and parish guilds. She was also on the Catholic Daughters' Prayer Chain since the '70s and the chairwoman of it for decades. She took her role as prayer minister very seriously, and her enduring faithfulness to hours of quiet prayer in her home was inspiring.

Gladys never had lofty aspirations to travel or see the world. Rather, her heart's desire was devoted to three simple things: her faith, her family and her friends - and deeply devoted she was to all three.

She was a woman of both joy and grace. Her smile was radiant, and laugh infectious. She could - and would - strike up a conversation with anyone, and made each person she encountered feel welcome and loved. Even at the very end of her life when she was quite ill, her enduring strength and kindness to those who cared for her and visited her was nothing short of pure beauty and inspiration.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Richard; sister-in-law Paula Ann Nathe; her brother, Melvin Nathe; and husband Richard Pabst.

She is survived by one son, Craig Lang of Boise; daughter Brenda Pabst of Lewiston; two sisters, Grace Church of Lewiston and Ethel Bowen of Spokane; and brother Vern Nathe of Novato, Calif.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, the rosary will be recited, followed by a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m., to be held at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church. Burial will follow at the Normal Hill Cemetery.

Memorial donations can be made to St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Connection in Clarkston at (509) 758-7061.