Gladys Darnall Witte

Gladys Darnall Witte, age 91, passed away at home in Missouri City, TX on Tuesday, August 6, 2013. Gladys was born in Port Arthur, TX on May 17, 1922. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School and attended Southwest Texas University and Lamar University, where she majored in music. Gladys sang in the Mixed Chorus and Girl’s Glee Club, and she played clarinet in the college band as well as cello in the college symphony orchestra. Her musical talent carried on as she sang with various church choirs for over 40 years. She became a mother for the first time in 1943. She had 3 sons and 1 daughter. After the death of her husband, Mervin Smith, she moved to Houston to work at the University of Houston to support her family. Gladys remarried to Ralph Brown and moved to Hilltop Lakes, TX, where she spent her retirement years. She took care of Ralph until passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. She remarried at age 72 to Victor Witte, who passed away in 2003. She then moved to Missouri City to live with her daughter, where she has been for the last 8 years.

Gladys’ volunteer activities included church choir, Ladies Auxiliary, Hilltop Lakes Foundation Board of Directors, Stephen’s Ministries. She was a member of the Normangee Chapter #87 Order of the Eastern Star where she served two terms as “Worthy Matron”. She was most recently a member of First United Methodist Church of Missouri City.

Gladys is most known by her family and friends for her beauty and elegance, inside and out. Her dry wit, subtle one liners and love of practical jokes are remembered by all who met her.

Gladys was preceded in death by her parents, Leslie and Inez Darnall; husbands, Mervin T. Smith, Ralph Brown and Victor Witte, sons, Randall Smith and James Smith, and brother, James Darnall.

She is survived by her daughter, Daphne Sampson; son, Ronald Smith and his wife Lisa; ten grand-children; seven great-grand-children; and one great-great-grandchild.

The Funeral Service will be held at 12:00 PM, Saturday, August 10, 2013, at The Settegast-Kopf Co. @ Sugar Creek, Sugar Land, with Visitation beginning at 10:00 AM. Graveside Services will be held at 2:00 PM, Sunday, August 11, 2013, at Hopewell Cemetery, Normangee, Texas.