Gladys was the granddaughter of Irish and Swedish immigrants who arrived in America during the 1800s; Harriet & Timothy Shay and Emma & John Nystrand. Both families headed with a strong woman-mother figure. She was raised on West Mountain near Sparta in a small house with her 4 siblings. As a child, she hauled water from a spring, learned to garden, gathered firewood, washed clothes by hand, walked to school and was raised within a small family group including her parents, grandmother, an aunt, an uncle, and a cousin. She graduated from Franklin High School, valedictorian and was also a trained beautician. During WWII she was employed at Picatinny Arsenal New Jersey.

Gladys moved to Stillwater in 1950 when she married into the Rosenkrans family. The Rosenkrans’ have a long history in America having arrived in New Netherland in the mid-1600s and settled many places within, Sussex County and Stillwater. She was on offspring of the “American Melting Pot” within America, a place with a sense of opportunity and hope.

Family, community, and church were paramount during her life. Hence, she was assimilated into and became a Stillwater fixture in the daily activities and lives of most everyone who called Stillwater home, but never leaving behind her connections to West Mountain and her family. She was a busy person always working on getting things done and helping when asked. Her husband McClellan was a building contractor and together they raised three children, managed the family business, and participated in many social and community gatherings and activities. She saw Stillwater transition from a small rural farm community to a one with growth and development associated with the margins of urban sprawl.

Gladys was a founding member of the Historical Society Stillwater Township. More significantly, her commitment to family and community led her to become involved with the Stillwater Library Ladies Group, the Presbyterian Church and Stillwater Elementary School sport activities and social functions with her children. She helped organize and run the Stillwater Rodeo, hang the town Christmas lights, and organize the smorgasbord and supper fundraising dinners at the Church. She was involved with Sunday School, the annual Stillwater parade, Halloween and Christmas events such as the Haunted House at the Library, and also served as Mrs. Santa Claus and participated in Christmas caroling. She was always ready for a walk in the woods and an avid flower and vegetable gardener.

She assisted her husband McClellan when he was Stillwater Township Building Inspector and, also while he served as Secretary to the Stillwater School Board for whom she wrote all the Board’s checks in her beautiful handwriting. When her children entered High School, she started working as the Court Clerk for Stillwater and Hampton Townships and continued there until she retired in the 1980s. She seemed to know everybody in multifaceted aspects and their interconnections with Stillwater. She had melded into a “Stillwaterite”, shared its world view, and knew all its crooks and crannies, as well as the local politics and unspoken history.

Is seems as if the hardest thing she faced in life was when she decided to leave the community of Stillwater (which she did twice) in which she had so many connections and which provided her with purpose and meaning. This was evident when she and McClellan moved to Alaska and spent 1959 there attempting to become homesteaders. The work and wilderness of Alaska enchanted her but strained her heart because of the separation from friends, family, and community. Upon retirement, she and McClellan moved to Nicholson Pennsylvania. They rebuilt a new life and social network in Pennsylvania, but it was never the same for her. She felt lonely and missed the deep connection and lacked the sustenance she had derived from Stillwater; her friends and from living in Stillwater. The love she had for Stillwater environs and people still resides in those who knew her from Middleville, Twin Bridges, Swartswood, Fairview Lake, Paulinskill, Stillwater and everywhere between.

Danny Rosenkrans 3/22/2021