Gladys A Widdiss was an American tribal elder, Wampanoag historian and potter.
20 Facts About Gladys Widdiss
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Gladys Widdiss then served as the vice chairman of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal council for many years.
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Gladys Widdiss's grandfather, named Thomas, received an award for rescuing twenty survivors of the SS City of Columbus wreck in 1884.
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Gladys Widdiss had hoped to attend Salem State College to become a teacher, but lack of money during the Great Depression led her to abandon those plans.
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Gladys Widdiss met and married her husband, Leonard Widdiss, a postal worker, soon after moving to Boston.
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Leonard D Widdiss enlisted in the US Marines during World War II and served in the Pacific theater.
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Gladys Widdiss took a position as an airplane dials painter during the war.
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Gladys Widdiss split worked part-time at the former Jordan Marsh department store and an elementary school cafeteria in Wayland, Massachusetts.
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Gladys Widdiss next worked as a salesperson at Filene's in Boston from 1964 to 1981.
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Gladys Widdiss had been instrumental in the movement to gain federal recognition for the tribe.
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Gladys Widdiss remained vice chairman of the Wampanoag tribal council for many years after leaving the presidency.
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Gladys Widdiss sold their home in Wayland, Massachusetts, and moved back to Martha's Vineyard, where she built a cottage on her family's homestead in Gay Head, soon becoming a full-time resident.
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Gladys Widdiss had crafted clay objects to sell to tourists as a child, including cardholders, small lighthouses, and paperweights.
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Gladys Widdiss began making pottery again when she returned to Martha's Vineyard.
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Gladys Widdiss was one of the few people who received an official permit from Gay Head to collect and use colored clay from the Gay Head Cliffs.
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Gladys Widdiss baked her pieces in the sun, since a traditional kiln fades the natural colors of the Gay Head Cliffs clay.
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Gladys Widdiss contributed her biography to the Martha's Vineyard Museum Oral History Center in May 2011.
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Gladys Widdiss died at Martha's Vineyard Hospital in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, on June 13,2012, at the age of 97.
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Gladys Widdiss was survived by her three children, Donald, Carl and Dawn; two grandsons; and two great-children.
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Gladys Widdiss was predeceased by her husband and their son, Marc.