Gladys Marie (Horstmann) Karver, 90, passed away Friday, April 26,2019, at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.
Gladys was born December 25, 1928, to Henry William Horstmann and Clara (Schmidt) Horstmann. She was the youngest of six children. She was four years old when she and family moved from Jordan Township to Orion Township. This became the family farm. She attended a country school (District 21); a one room school house with grades 1-8. She then graduated from Chatfield High School, she helped with farm work, milking cows and driving the tractor. On September 24, 1950, she married Charles Lyndon Karver.
After graduation she worked at the Kahler Hotel as a nurse’s aid. Shortly after starting, she went to the surgical department where she washed, sterilized, tested, powdered and wrapped surgical gloves worn in surgery. There were four operating rooms in the Kahler, doing plastic surgery in the morning and general surgery in the afternoon. In 1953 the Kahler closed their hospital department and moved operations over to the Colonial Hospital. It was later bought by the Methodist Hospital. Gladys spent the rest of her working years at Methodist Surgery. When she became a grandmother in 1972, she went to vocational school and became an LPN. She was an orthopedic scrub nurse, handing instruments to surgeons. She retired on November 27, 1990. Her hobbies were making quilts and all kinds of sewing.
Gladys is survived by her son Charles Clarence (Pat) Karver, two grandsons, Charles Lyndon (Lynda) Karver and Christopher Glenn (Amanda) Karver; great-grandsons David (Chandice), Logan, A.J., and Tate; great-granddaughter Olivia Karver, great-great-grandson Gavin Karver, and great-great-granddaughter Jamie Karver.
She is preceded in death by her husband Charles (December 24, 2001), her parents, three brothers and two sisters.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 3, 2019, at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chatfield, with Pastor Peter J. Haugen officiating. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 2, at Riley Funeral Home in Chatfield, and one hour prior to services on Friday at the church. Burial will take place at St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery.
Online condolences are welcome at rileyfuneralhomes.com.