THE RATCLIFFE CONNECTION
After Roscoe’s death Gladys worked first for The Boeing Company, “exactly one year to the day,” and then took a Civil Service position. She resigned from the latter to marry Kent Ellsworth Ratcliffe on May 20, 1958. Those in this wedding party portrait, from left to right, are Miriam and Mark Ratcliffe, Kent’s younger brother and his wife; Janice Lynn Johnson, Gladys’ daughter; Gladys and Kent Ratcliffe; and Charles Ratcliffe, Kent’s oldest son. Tom Culbertson, the youngest of Florence and Kinley’s three children, graduated from Marysville High School, and then he and a boyfriend lived with the Lynns while attending the University of Washington. Janice thoroughly enjoyed the companionship of these two older “brothers.” Tom especially remained a favorite of hers, and it was particularly appropriate that he “gave away the bride” during her marriage to Wilbur Vance Johnson on August 21, 1953. Margaret and Tom Culbertson are the next two individuals in the portrait. In 1950 or 1951, Gladys sold the family home and leased an apartment in Cassel Crag–diagonally across from Horizon House, on Terry Avenue, and now part of the Virginia Mason complex. During periods that Janice was away at school and again after her marriage, Gladys sublet the second bedroom to various young women working in the area. They always became her friends, but none more so than the last, Alma Senkler, who ultimately assisted both Kent and Gladys with their bookkeeping and who remained an important member of Gladys’ extended family. Alma stands to the far right in the portrait, and also appears in the picture taken on Gladys’ and Kent’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. The happy couple are also shown a year after that anniversary aboard a Norwegian cruise vessel. After World War I service, in which he became a pilot but didn’t see combat, and graduation from the University of Washington, Kent purchased and managed The Jordan Company. His business card reads “Public Weighers, Cargo Superintendents,” and he had a tremendous store of information about all commodities that crossed Seattle’s docks. After their marriage Gladys moved into the spacious Ratcliffe home on 3700 Cascadia Avenue S. The three Ratcliffe sons were by then married and gone, and ultimately the couple moved a few doors north into a smaller and newer home on the same side of the same street. From there they went to an apartment in Panorama House, and then on May 31, 1985, they came to Horizon House apartment A-Y. Kent died there on March 23, 1988. Gladys maintained that residence until August of this year, when she moved to Assisted Living unit 5. Both Gladys and Kent were active members of Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church, which she had joined on December 22, 1946, shortly after the Lynns moved to Seattle. Gladys was an enthusiastic, and very good, bridge player; loved to travel; enjoyed Seattle Symphony concerts, both classical and pops; and continued attending the Church, where she remains a member, until recently. She is also a member of PEO. She is seated here in her Horizon House apartment awaiting the beginning of her birthday festivities. Happy One-Hundredth Birthday Gladys!
W. Vance Johnson 07 Sep 01