Martha Lewis Gleason

Martha Lewis Gleason, 81, lifelong resident, citizen, and passionate advocate of that city, its personality and people died Saturday, December 1, 2007, in Charlottesville.

Martha was the third and youngest child of Hope Woods Gleason and Laura Egan Gleason.

She was born January 15, 1926, a date she felt honored to share in later years with the Reverend Martin Luther King's national birthday celebration. Except for her year of executive secretarial training at the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston, Martha always lived in Charlottesville. She was a graduate of McGuffey elementary and St Anne's high schools where she acquired a set of remarkable, lifelong friends.

As a teenager, Martha was privileged to learn the equestrian arts of riding, hunting and show jumping, under the tutelage of Elliewood Keith, a renowned horsewoman and teacher who left a lasting impression on Martha as on so many others. During World War II, after she saw her brothers H. W. "Bootie" Gleason and Charles Gleason go off to war; Martha served at the University of Virginia Medical Center as a volunteer nurse's aid. That experience contributed to her dawning social conscience.

In her middle years, after her marriage to Page Nelson, with whom she raised three sons, Page Jr., Scott and Brent, who survive her; Martha embarked on a varied career, first working with Gloria Hereford as parish secretaries at St. Paul's Church during the tenure of Rev. David Ward. She was subsequently executive assistant for Dr. Thomas Hunter and ethicist Dr. Joseph Fletcher at the University of Virginia Medical School where she coordinated the "Medical Center Hour." Martha rounded out her career in office administration when she was asked to oversee the opening of the new Scott and Stringfellow office by Alex von Thelen. She continued there as office manager. Through all of these assignments, Martha was diligent, passionate and creative in her approach to her work and the friendships she formed with her employers and co-workers. She was a figure one could not easily ignore or forget: an annoyance to a few, an inspiration to many.

In her 60s, when most of her peers were preparing for retirement, Martha embarked on her final career- in real estate, thus converting a hobby of many years, helping people find the ideal place to live, into a living. After a stint at Roy Wheeler, she joined Charlotte Ramsey, where she worked with her characteristic enthusiasm for a task she valued until her retirement as she turned 79.

Martha will likely be best remembered in Charlottesville by her friends and others for her involvement in a series of public advocacy groups concerned with growth and the quality of civic life. With Kay Slaughter she helped form Preservation Piedmont. In recent years she participated in the North Downtown Residents Association, STAMP, Townwatch and Democrats for Change. Martha was instrumental in the relocation of the Farmers Market to its present location and was an originator of the concept for the Charlottesville Community Scholarship Program that began in 2001. She prided herself on her ability to identify problems or needs and to generate solutions. Although Martha always claimed that her proudest accomplishments were her three sons, the actual course of her life was one typical of many of her generation, a generation that not only grew up during the Great Depression and World War II, but a generation that experienced the Civil Rights movement in Virginia. Martha was always a bit chagrinned to admit that it was not until she was nearing 40 that she truly grasped the awful limitations and frustrations of the African-American experience in her home town. It was a lesson and a shock that, as a member of the last generation of American women whose career opportunities were severely limited, she never forgot.

Martha could be outspoken but was essentially a shy person who eschewed notice. She has no responsibility for the contents of this obituary and would likely have disapproved of having her life thus detailed. To many residents of downtown she was "the dog lady" by virtue of her series of wonderful pooches, Bear, Willie and Max (all plucked from the SPCA.) She was a prodigious walker. There were few who could keep up with Martha once she set sail. Although she was unaware of it on the morning of her death, it too had significance for the cause of civil rights: Dec.1st was the 52nd anniversary of the day Mrs. Rosa Parks declined to move to the back of the bus.

There will be a memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday, December 22, 2007, at St. Paul's Memorial Church followed by a gathering at 707 Northwood Avenue at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Martha's name can be made to the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA.

Martha's family would like to invite anyone who knew or encountered her to share your recollections, good, bad or otherwise, with us via US mail to Martha Gleason Remembered, 707 Northwood Ave., Charlottesville, VA 22901 or via email at marthagleasonremembered@yahoo.com. Frankness of expression will be welcome.