Gladys May Rackin

Gladys May Rackin died Sunday August 04, 2024, at her beloved home at the age of 69. Gladys was born in Ohio, smack in the middle of six children. She exemplified a “middle-child” attitude throughout her life. She always tried to solve disputes and make sure everyone had an equal share. Similarly, she was the kindest and most generous woman. She would give the cookie from her own mouth. She met the love of her life, Frederick Elliot Rackin, in Florida in 1983. Their rollercoaster romance resulted in a daughter, Heather Molly Rackin, in 1984 and lasted until Fred’s death in 2017. Their love was the kind that would draw two people together regardless of time or circumstances. If there were past or eternal lives, their lives would be intertwined throughout such an eternity. While she loved Florida, she did not want to be there without Fred, thus, after his death, she moved to Louisiana to be close to their daughter and son-in-law, Roger Todd Roberts. Luckily, Louisiana’s oppressive heat made her feel at home. Nevertheless, she hadn’t experienced cold for about three decades, thus, in Louisiana winters she would don a bathrobe and call it a “fuzzy jacket” or wear a night gown to doctors’ appointments, surely in honor of Fred who enjoyed gardening in boxers which he referred to as “shorts” as no one would know (sorry Fred, everyone knew, but this is what happens when you live in Florida for over 30 years where everyone seems to constantly be in underwear). Fred and Gladys shared a deep love of food and restaurants. Some were shocked on how often they went out to eat and how much they enjoyed it. This love of restaurants was passed down and seems to be found in all Rackins. They had slight differences in preferences, however. Fred would always try new foods (e.g., double dark chocolate covered ants), whereas Gladys only enjoyed “original” food (e.g., sea salt ants). Nonetheless, Gladys would always try to get anyone and everyone to get food from a restaurant whenever they saw her. More generally, she loved eating. Even during cancer treatment, she would relish in eating. This may be partly why she loved kids so much—because they were always eating and she could always feed them. She was a born caregiver and throughout her life cared for the elderly, young, sick, and anyone who needed help. She cared for Shirley Rackin (Nanny), her late mother-in-law, for nearly a decade and still spoke about the joy and laughter they shared at Dairy Queen over chili dogs. She also cared for her late sister, Barbara Fogelpole, in her final months. She also lives on through her other sister, Shirley Kimble. Her love of children was strong. In fact, she only smiled in pictures when she had a child in her arms. She loved her daughter, Heather Molly Rackin, with such gusto it is difficult to overstate. She cared for Heather as a child by staying up all night with her every night that she was sick. She loved holding, feeding, and getting surprises for children more than anything. She was especially close to her granddaughter, Elliott Quinn Rackin-Roberts, and grandson, Wyatt Byrd Rackin-Roberts. As infants she constantly held, fed, and played with them. As they grew, they became conditioned to expect treats every time they saw her. She easily fit into the grandmother role. She would feed them ice cream, cookies, freshly baked blueberry or banana nut muffins, or what seemed like an intravenous line of sugar and then send them back to her daughter and son-in-law to deal with. Her affection and caretaking extended to the many household pets that she had through the decades. Gladys cared for Guinea, Birdman, and Pusspuss when her daughter was young. Also, she had several chihuahuas (or similarly small dogs) throughout that she loved and cared for: Shadow was loved by all; Tchotchke was a sweet small chihuahua; Kizzy was her daughter’s dog from college that she took in; and Molly was a chihuahua she adopted in Baton Rouge (who is currently loved and cared for by her daughter’s family and apparently named after her daughter). Underfoot was the cat that her and Fred found in a live trap in Florida that she brought to Baton Rouge.
She loved being a stay-at-home mom while her daughter was in elementary school. She relished being a “room noodle” to help care for the elementary school class, as she did creative things with the class (e.g., amazed the children by dressing as a witch with full green face paint while stirring witches’ brew in a caldron misting and frothing from dry ice). Oddly, she enjoyed being the main classroom lice checker. Even more oddly, this primal pleasure of lice checking was passed along to her daughter, who now can give lice checking tips and has considered starting a Youtube channel to share her passion. Gladys’ zeal for arts and crafts and creative projects with children was exemplified in making hula skirts out of trash bags, building gingerbread houses, and making ballon animals as she toyed with the idea of becoming a clown (she gave up on a clown career as she saw how expensive clown shoes were as well as the cost of clown school). Her concern about expense was probably best seen in her intense focus on finding sales. She would buy anything if it was on sale, it didn’t matter if it was needed or could even ever be used (e.g., clothes that were clearly several sizes too big or small). She was not a hoarder, however, as she would give these items to others regardless of if they wanted them or not. She loved thrift stores as she could find the ultimate deal. In addition, she loved sharing her skills at finding the best deal. For instance, if someone commented that she had a nice dress she would quickly reply, “25 cents. I got it for a quarter” (note that this was not in 1900 when a quarter was a lot of money, this was in 2010 when no one could buy anything for a quarter, except for Gladys who had a sixth sense regarding discounts). She would always purchase “markdown meat” for her family and it was delicious (albeit the family found out the hard way that markdown fish might not be the best idea). She loved free even better than sales. Thus, her daughter and her have fond memories of “junkin” which involved driving around fancy neighborhoods looking for toys or furniture on bulk trash day. She rarely got angry, but when she did it was always over being charged too much. Gladys was a consummate decorator and took pride in her home and garden. She always painted and knew the HGTV colors. She painted her own beloved home in Florida and Baton Rouge as well as her granddaughter’s room. She loved the look of flowers, but wanted them always in bloom, so she would buy out the silk flowers in Walmart or the dollar store (but only if they were on sale, of course). Her personality and love shone through her love of bright, shiny, and animal print clothing as well as multiple earrings and a nose-ring. Please don your bold sparkling cheetah clothing and accessories to bid farewell to a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, relative, and friend. Her Interment is Friday August 09, 2024, at 9:00am in Oak Grove Cemetery 5500 McClelland Dr Baton Rouge, La 70805. A memorial time and location will be provided at a later date. The family would like to thank Resting Place Funeral Home for professional services.