Gladys Verne Taylor Shipman, 95, passed away on January 5, 2016. She was born on July 18, 1920 to Gladys Drucilla and James Ernest Taylor in Dallas, TX.

The eldest girl of six children, she contributed to the care of her younger siblings, especially through the hard years of the Great Depression. Working in her father's photography studio, she mastered the art of re-touching negatives and tinting the sepia-toned photographs with colors that brought the portraits to life.

Gladys married Jack Franklin Shipman on December 29, 1941. She followed Jack to a number of U. S. Army posts in Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho before returning to Fort Worth where she lived until he returned at the end of World War II. Completely devoted to her family, she became a mother in 1946 to Sandra Louise, her only child. In 1956, Gladys and her family moved to Lake Jackson, when Jack took a position with Dow as an aircraft mechanic.

Her talent was with needle and thread. She learned early in her life to make her own clothes and eventually became a master seamstress and tailor. She excelled in all facets of needlework-crochet, knitting, and needlepoint. Her sewing also gave her a way to make others happy, and she made clothes and needlework pieces for her sisters and young sisters-in-law, and later for her daughter and grandchildren, as well as for those confined to wheelchairs in nursing homes. Gladys used her skills to give to others.

She is preceded in death by her husband Jack, parents Gladys Wynn and James E. Taylor, brothers James Taylor, Warren Taylor, and Allan Taylor.

She is survived by her daughter Sandra Stevens and husband John, granddaughter Sara and husband Jonathan Fountain, grandson Travis, and great-granddaughter Harper Fountain-Stevens; her sisters Kathryn Burkholder and Shirley Wilson; and her sisters-in-law Nell Roebuck, Bobbie Males, Gusteen Jenkins Trimble, and Wanda Shipman; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at First United Methodist Church, McKeithan Chapel, Lake Jackson, on Saturday, January 9, 2016, at 2:00 p.m. Family will receive visitors one hour prior to the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to First United Methodist Church, 404 Azalea St., Lake Jackson, Texas 77566.

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