Gertrude Weber Glanzman

 

Last updated 7/2/2015 at 12:39pm



Gertrude Weber was born to Black Sea and Volga German immigrants Wendel and Katherine Weber on a farm near Odessa, Wash. Wendel had been an officer in the Russian Czar’s army and fled with a large number of other Germans, called “Volgadeutsch,” upon the fall of Russia to the Bolscheviks. The group arrived in the U.S., boarded a train provided with plowshares, wheat and basic provisions, mules, etc. and came to Ritzville to join other Germans. Life on the farm was originally tough, trying to grow wheat on the Palouse. Trudy was one of 11 siblings, some born before leaving the village of Walter Kutter in Russia and the rest born on the farm. The farm was successful and eventually all Trudy’s brothers started farms.

Trudy left Odessa after high school to work as a stenographer in Idaho. She met Dale Glanzman, son of Charles Ferdinand Glanzman of Ammon, Idaho and and his schoolteacher wife Bessie Martin Glanzman formerly of Moville, Iowa. Dale grew up an only child on the farm, worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps and attended Business College in Salt Lake City. Dale was a timekeeper for the Union Pacific Railroad and left that position to join the U.S. Navy on a destroyer escort outfitted in Bath, Maine and stationed in Bermuda. That ship provided power to run the only German U-Boat captured in World War II to harbor in Bermuda. During the war, Trudy was assistant and later timekeeper for the Union Pacific in Nampa, Idaho. They were married shortly after VE day in 1945 and made their home in a small basement apartment three blocks from the depot in Pocatello. She gave up her job to a returning veteran and would never work a job again.

Trudy gave birth to Charles in June, 1947. He was raised until age 3 1/2 on the the farm by the paternal grandparents. Robert was born in November, 1948. Dale and Trudy bought a new postwar tract home in what was then the outskirts of Pocatello, financed by a VA loan. In 1951, Dale was transferred to Portland, Ore. and worked extensively on accident investigations, taking testimony of eyewitnesses on extended stays away from home, while Trudy ran the house. The first home was in Hawthorne Heights and was rented from Magician Chan, while he toured, performing magic. Later, they moved to a rental in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Portland.

During a long trip, Trudy visited her sister, Marie Bott in Puyallup, Wash. William was born during this time and the children remained in Puyallup for the summer. Dale was promoted to the Land and Tax Department working on right of way and easement acquisition.

Trudy had a stillborn fourth son, unnamed. She had a long recuperation from that hospitalization and this became the darkest time of her life. She kept her rented home immaculate and ran the house skillfully, while still not driving.

Dale began moonlighting as a real estate salesman and eventually, after several promotions, bought a house with a stunning view of Mt. Hood on the slopes of Mount Tabor. With one son in engineering college, they moved to this home and her happiness returned. The second son went on to study architecture, and Dale was again transferred to Salt Lake City, where he was named general land and tax agent for the Union Pacific, having jurisdiction over approximately eight states. Finally, Trudy had all three sons in college and working and was able to travel with Dale on business. This would become a happy time for her. She took up golf and was active in her church.

Dale retired in 1976, and they sold their house, moving to a rented condo downtown, which allowed them to travel to Oregon and find their home in Summerfield, a development for seniors in Tigard, Ore. She had missed the trees and greenery of the Willamette Valley, and they moved back to Oregon in September, 1978. They became active members of the Summerfield Golf Club, with Dale rising to president.

Dale passed away from an extended illness in April, 1995. Trudy maintained the home on Oaktree Lane, moving in 1998 to Summerfield Retirement Estates. She resided there until 2011, when she moved to an assisted care facility in Sherwood, being moved to their hospice care unit in the Spring of 2015. She passed away from complications of pneumonia June 22, 2015. She is survived by all three sons.

Charles and wife Doris reside on a farm in Iowa. He retired from engineering. The couple are organic farmers. Robert lives in Seattle and is active in several organizations, while doing urban gardening. William is professor of archaeology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada and is married to a talented Canadian, Ann, who has been instrumental in the first IMax theater in Ottawa, investigated First Nation land claims in British Columbia and now consults and performs specialized landscaping and gardening. He is well known for work on the Wadi al Bilquis in Yemen, which may have been a palace of the Queen of Sheba.

The memorial service was held June 30 at Finley’s Sunset Hills Mortuary in Portland.

 

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