KNOX — Gladys M. Liddle came from a big family — she was one of six children — and raised a big family — four sons and a daughter.

“She stayed home and took care of the kids like her mother did. Family was everything, with her mother, and she picked up from there,” said her daughter, Diane Wells, describing their family as “very close-knit.”

Mrs. Liddle died on Monday, Feb. 3, 2014. She was 80.

She was born on May 30, 1933 to the late Henry and Florence (née Taber) Bradt in Albany. They rented a big house in the Hilltowns where they raised their children while Mr. Bradt did odd jobs and Mrs. Bradt tended to their kids.

“They weren’t very rich,” said Mrs. Wells. “It wasn’t an easy life.”  

But, there was music. Mrs. Liddle was given a harmonica when she was a child and enjoyed it all her life. “She’d just play tunes,” said her daughter.

“She loved her music, even in the nursing home,” said Mrs. Wells. She enjoyed country music classics, like songs by Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, and she like polka.

“She’d wiggle her feet and clap sometimes until her disease progressed,” said Mrs. Wells, referring to the dementia her mother suffered from. “It made her happy,” she said of the music.

She went to “a little red schoolhouse” as a child and later attended Berne-Knox High School. “She got out and got married,” said her daughter. She enjoyed dancing at Township Tavern and other bars.

She also liked to travel. “She loved looking at everything, the sights,” said her daughter.

And, although she couldn’t swim, she enjoyed the water. She’d take steamboat rides on Lake George and, at Cape Cod, “she would just sit on the beach and stick her feet in the water, or just go up to her knees,” said Mrs. Wells.

Mrs. Liddle also laughed a lot. “She was like that, too, in the nursing home,” said her daughter. “Anything she thought was comical.”

Mrs. Wells said what she learned from her mother was that family is important. “I learned a lot about taking care of babies,” said Mrs. Wells.

“She’d tell you, no, put the blanket this way, or the baby needs this or that. She watched all of her grandchildren....She was a good mom, loving and caring, always there to lend a helping hand if you needed her. Anytime.”

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Gladys M. Liddle is survived by her husband Harry; her children Richard A. Liddle and his wife, Cynthia, Ronald Liddle and his wife, Charlene, Diane Wells and her husband, William, Roger Liddle, and Randy Liddle and his wife, Anita; her grandchildren Macy, Amy, Ronald Jr. and his wife, Donna, Shawn, Sam, Brian, Ben, Brandon, Carl and Richard; great grandmother to Kelly, Dakota, Bianca, Nicholas, and Dante.

Family and friends are invited to calling hours on Friday, Feb. 7, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Fredendall Funeral Home, 199 Main Street, Altamont with a funeral service to follow at 12:30 p.m. An interment will be held in the spring at the Knox Cemetery.

Mourners may leave condolences online at www.fredendallfuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association Northeastern New York Chapter, 85 Watervliet Ave., Albany, NY 12206.

— Marcello Iaia