Funeral service for Gladys Marie Pride age 98, of Tipton, Oklahoma will be at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, August 14, 2019, at the First Baptist Church in Tipton. Burial will follow in the Fairlawn Cemetery in Snyder. Mrs. Pride passed away Tuesday, August 6, 2019, in Altus, Oklahoma.

Gladys Marie (Allen) Pride was born on January 31, 1921, in Hillsboro, Texas to Henry and Laurabell (Tolliver) Allen. At a very young age Gladys' family moved from Texas to Snyder, Oklahoma. Both of her parents died shortly after the move, and the nine children moved in with their grandmother. She was obviously a woman of strength and character. Material possessions was of little importance; her home, was a tent beside the church. Each day when she went to work, she would give the children a list of do's and don'ts. When she returned home, she usually found Gladys and her siblings asleep on the church pews covered with her homemade quilts.

Gladys spoke very fondly of her grandmother. She always said that her grandmother told them to, "be kind and honest with people and the Lord will bless you". Another interesting statement regarding her grandmother was "she didn't believe in going to the cellar – if a storm looked pretty bad, she would get out the Bible and would read the 23 ^rd Psalms twice". At the age of 13, Gladys took her first job working at Hoover's Laundry in Snyder. Before long she was promoted from cleanup to operating the pressing machine and doing ironing. She later worked as a cleaning lady for numerous stores and residences in Snyder. When she was in her 40's, Gladys moved to Tipton and was never without a job. She said, "the good Lord put us here to be a blessing for him, and I have tried to do just that. I have not asked the government for food stamps or money. I am healthy and have provided for my children and spent my money wisely". Other families and businesses that Gladys had worked for include the Franroy Theatre, Toma's Grocery, Senator Gilmer Capps, Junior and Margaret Jennings, Lorance and Emma McCullough, First National Bank, USPS, Marie Reece, Raenell Vernon, and Nick Dysart. She also took in ironing for numerous families around Tipton. In 2015, Gladys was selected Woman of the Year by the Tipton Chamber of Commerce. She always enjoyed a large garden and continued to have one, until 2017. With Gladys, it was easy to tell that hard work was more than a slogan and Pride was more than a name.

She is survived by three daughters, Bernice Brown of Altus, Oklahoma, JoAnne Pride of Altus, Oklahoma and Gayle Pride of the home; one brother, Tom Allen of California; fifteen grandchildren; and a host of great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and many friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her grandmother; three daughters, Beatrice Taylor, Florence Copeland and Katherine Wells; and three sisters and four brothers.