Mabel Janet (Gates) Wadsworth (1871-1939)

GATES, WADSWORTH

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 9/23/2013 at 20:28:18

From unknown newspaper April 1939

Funeral services and burial rites--brief and simple--were held here this afternoon for Mrs. Mabel Gates-Wadsworth, 68, native daughter of Nevada, who died very suddenly at her home at Longmont, Colorado, early Wednesday.

Death came very suddenly. She had attended a social function during the afternoon, had dinner down town with her husband, enjoyed a brief ride and was taken ill immediately upon ordering entering her home. An attack of heart trouble proved fatal within an few hours, in spite of the constant attention of a physician and a nurse. The pain apparently subsided an hour or so before her passing and she passed away as if in her sleep.

The body, accompanied by her husband Frank Wadsworth and friends, arrived here over the Northwestern Friday and lay in state at the Morfoot Funeral Home, where it was viewed by many sorrowing local friends.

The funeral services were in strict accord with the expressed desire of the deceased and consisted merely of the reading of a suitable scripture lesson, a prayer and a poem. There was no sermon, no music and no obituary of the deceased read. The only flowers was a large bouquet of red carnations as a floral tribute from the bereaved husband.

Pallbearers were selected from among the husbands of the Sorosis club of which she was a charter member and had always retained her membership in an active way.

The rooms at the funeral home were filled in capacity with sorrowing friends and old time neighbors, together with a small group of friends from her Longmont home, who had traveled the long distance to join with the Nevada friends in paying a final tribute of respect in the manner of one whom they had long admired.

Mabel Gates-Wadsworth was the last of the family of the late William Gates and wife, early pioneers of Nevada. She was born here January 7, 1871, the third of the four children.

Raised in Nevada, she attended Nevada high school and graduated with the class of 1888. Taking some higher training, she taught school here for time after which she went to Chicago where she took further study in English and attended a school of oratory. Specializing in this line of work and teaching she went west and taught the schools of Longmont and it was there she met Frank Wadsworth, who was to become her husband.

They were united in marriage at the family home Seventh street in Nevada about twenty-seven years ago and at once established their home in Longmont. For a time she was engaged in the mercantile business, after which they moved onto a nearby ranch which he owned and that had since been their home.