Age Claims Centenarian Who Beat Crash, Cancer

Gladys Lauderbach, survivor of a deadly plane crash, a battle with cancer and a fierce attack of pneumonia, has died of natural causes. She was 100 years old.

Sue Ellen Barton, one of Mrs. Lauderbach’s nine grandchildren, said her grandmother died Saturday evening in her Garden Grove home. Present was her daughter, Marjorie Ranney.

Mrs. Lauderbach celebrated her 100th birthday March 6 with a party at Santa Ana’s First Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Lauderbach was in the news about 21 years ago when a jet bomber that had collided in midair with another crashed into Leisure World, exploding in a fireball that engulfed her home. Her husband, Leon, and four other people were killed in the accident.

Mrs. Lauderbach also survived a bout of cancer that her doctors and even her family believed would prove terminal. And as late as New Year’s Day this year, a case of pneumonia sent her to the hospital for five days. She survived once again.

“I’ve just lived a common and natural life,” Mrs. Lauderbach told The Times on the occasion of her 100th birthday. “I didn’t make a big deal of it.”

Mrs. Lauderbach was born in 1888 on her family’s farm in Howell, Mich. After graduating from Alma College in Alma, Mich., she became a Latin teacher, then went back to the family farm to marry. In 1923, she moved with her family to Santa Ana after driving across the country in a Buick touring car.

“Life was awfully interesting,” Mrs. Lauderbach said a few days before her 100th birthday. When she was reminded that her life wasn’t yet over, she feigned innocence.

“Oh, it isn’t,” she said. “I thought those would make good last words.”

Mrs. Lauderbach is survived by four children, nine grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that a donation be made to the church’s scholarship fund.