Gladys Maassen
Gladys Hazel Maassen (nee Olson), 93 years young, was placed in God's loving arms August 25, 2024. Gladys was born in Chicago May 24, 1932, to Hazel Nichols and Theodore Olson, attending schools in Algona, Iowa; Lucerne, Minnesota; Rochester, Minnesota; and Fort Dodge, Iowa, and wed Carl R. Christensen in 1948 in Alameda, California. Patricia Ann (Mrs. Marvin Smith) Prescott, Arizona, and Carl James Christensen, Clinton, Iowa, soon became the first offsprings of the ever-growing family. Divorced in early 1952 and having returned to Creston and then to Fort Dodge, Gladys made her homes happy and child-focused for all who knew her.
Married to Dwight M. Phillips in late 1952, she presented him with Marsha Lou (Knapp) (deceased), Dale Allen of Fort Dodge, Gale Steven (deceased), Debra Kay (Mrs. David McMullen) Fort Dodge, Gloria Sue (Mrs. Tim Kral) of Jolley. A busy homemaker, Gladys was divorced from Mr. Phillips in 1960 and settled into life in Gowrie, Farnhamville and eventually Rolfe. It is likely she viewed more school functions, plays, operettas, games and PTA meetings than many other parents in Rolfe.
Gladys married Alfred J. Maassen (deceased) in 1961 and was very happily married for 35 years. She was employed in the nursing home trade and worked in Fort Dodge, Rolfe and Pocahontas hospital. She was a great hand in the garden, canning and making jellies and jams in her spare time, also helping Alfred on the farm as needed with dairy farm chores.
Gladys Hazel Maassen has five surviving children, eleven grandchildren, twenty three great-grand children, and three great-great-grandchildren. She was a lifelong member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Rolfe and had spent her remaining years at Fieldstone SNF in DeWitt, Iowa, where she was regarded as the bingo queen and one of the happiest residents by the staff of caregivers.
She was preceded in death by her husband Alfred, her mother and father, sister, two children and one grandchild.
Our lives will be less in her absence yet we all rejoice in having her as the very heart of our lives for as long as she lived and surely now heaven is greatly enriched.
Visitation will be held from 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Thursday, August 29, 2024, at Gunderson Funeral Home and Cremation Services. Graveside services will be held 10:00 a.m. Friday at Summit Hill Cemetery, Pocahontas.