Gladys Couling

Gladys was born in Sherbourne, Dorset in 1906 but the family moved to Oxford when she was five years old, settling finally in Jericho. She attended St. Barnabas School where during singing lessons the teacher would say: "Be quiet Gladys so we can hear the others!" Gladys always had a distinctive voice. She worked first at Cape's drapery store in Walton Street and then the Co-op drapery store in George Street. She met Harold Couling from Summertown and they were married in 1930. They settled in Canal Street where they brought up their two children, Peter and Margaret. Harold died in 1983. Earlier this year, following a stroke and a fall Gladys died in the John Radcliffe Hospital. Gladys often told her family: "I've had a long and happy life and wouldn't change a thing".