Gladys Cleora was known to her immediate family as Gladys. She was born in North Loup, Valley County, Nebraska. Her father was Wesley Torrence Hutchins, an insurance agent and oil stock salesman, and Grace Greenwood Clement, a housewife and mother of four children. She had three siblings, Floyd Parker, Helen Louise and Clyde Willis. North Loup was founded by Seventh Day Baptists. Gladys became and remained a member of the SDB community for her lifetime. She attended elementary and high school in North Loup and began her career as a public school teacher in North Loup. She met Edward George Christensen, a local farmer, and married him in 1928. They had two daughters, Jo Ann (b. 1933) and Phyllis (b. 1937). Jo Ann survived only a few days after birth. Phyllis happily thrived, completed high school, studied at the University of Nebraska, qualified as a nurse, married and had four children. After Gladys and Ed married, Gladys discontinued teaching and became a full-time housewife. The couple initially lived on a farm near Yale, Valley County, Nebraska, where her husband, Ed established himself as an independent farmer. They later purchased a farm near North Loup, and Ed continued farming, specializing in beef cattle and in crops such as sugar beets and corn. The couple diversified their income by going into partnership with Ed's nephew, Alvin Fay Christensen, and purchasing the cinema in Ord, Valley County, Nebraska in 1952. Alvin managed the cinema, and Ed and Gladys remained silent partners. They bought out Alvin's share of the cinema in 1955, and Ed undertook the management of the cinema until his death in 1970. Gladys survived Ed by some 23 years and died in Ord on Jan 13, 1993, at the age of 94. Her remains were buried next to her husband's in Hillside Cemetery in North Loup.