Service Information
The Peterson Chapel of Buffalo
Monday, May 5th, 2008
10:30am
Visitation Information
Donald and Gladys (nee Hacker) Payne’s Memorial Service will be Monday, May 5th, 2008 at The Peterson Chapel at 10:30am with a 1 hour visitation prior to the start of the service.
Donald and Gladys both bequeathed their bodies to the Mayo Foundation after their deaths. First Donald, on April 25th, 2006 at the age of 94, and then Gladys, on February 2nd, 2007 at the age of 96.
Donald was born August 27th, 1911 to Frank and Olga (nee Kaerver) of Stearns County. He attended Waite Park Public School, and four years in rural schools near Mora, before the family returned again to the farm near Waite Park. Donald also attended the School of Agriculture in Morris, Minnesota.
Gladys was born April 8th, 1910 to Henry John and Emelia (nee Krueger) Hacker of Camp Release Township, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota. She attended Montevideo Public Schools and in 1929 completed specialized training to teach in the rural schools. She later became licensed to teach remedial reading for elementary and secondary, developmental reading learning disabilities and special education. She received degrees from the University of St. Cloud in 1931, 1971, and Wisconsin State University, River Falls in 1961.
On June 1st, 1935, Donald and Gladys married in Montevideo, Minnesota. They moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1937, where Don was employed by the Lane County Highway Department. After returning to Minnesota in 1938, they operated his parents’ farm near Waite Park for 10 years before buying their own farm in Wright County, near Buffalo. Gladys (after teaching in rural and semi-graded elementary schools in Chippewa, Stearns and Wright Counties), became Elementary Principal and a sixth grade teacher in the Montrose Public Schools.
The family lived in Wright County until 1957, when Donald accepted employment with the State Training School for Boys (later named the Minnesota Correctional Facility) in Red Wing, Minnesota. After residing four years in the Red Wing area, the family moved to Goodhue, Minnesota where Donald continued to work at the school until his retirement in 1974. Gladys taught three year in the State Training School for Boys and nine years in the elementary grades in Goodhue, before starting the Learning Disabilities Program in the Goodhue School District. Gladys retired in 1975 and the couple moved to Rochester where Gladys became an active substitute teacher in the Rochester Public School District and also did some private tutoring.
In 1991, Gladys closed her file at the University of St. Cloud where she had the longest active file (60 years) in the office of Career Planning and Placement.
Memorials may be made to the Cancer Research, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN 55905