Obituary of Marie Therese Gass
Marie Therese Gass December 11, 1939 to May 4, 2022.
Marie Therese Gass, an artist, musician, writer, teacher, wife and mother, passed away on May 4, 2022 at the age of 82. Marie was born in Sedley, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1939 and immigrated to the United States with her parents John and Barbara Mildenberger when she was six years old. The oldest of seven children, Marie was raised in the Portland area and attended St. Mary of the Valley Academy in Beaverton. At the age of 16, she entered the Sisters of St. Mary Convent as a postulate and while there attended Marylhurst College in Oregon and Alverno College in Wisconsin, majoring in Music education with minors in French and secondary education. She left the convent at age 23, and met and married Donald Gass. Together they raised three children and designed and built a home in Clackamas where they lived for 30 years. Marie especially enjoyed time with Don gardening and creating beautiful spaces together on their forested 3/4 acre property. Marie taught school at St. John’s in Oregon City and later in the North Clackamas School District, as well as tutoring students in French and piano. She was an accomplished pianist and artist and enjoyed pottery making, oil painting, water colors and writing. She self-published four books, had numerous poems and essays published and briefly wrote a column for the The Willamette Writer. She will be greatly missed by her friends and family.
She was preceded in death by her siblings Johnny Mildenberger, Ola Marsef, Edmund Mildenberger, Tony Mildenberger and Barbara Mildenberger. She is survived by her husband Donald Gass, her three children Teri, David and Tanya, grandchildren Haley, Jacob, Raquel, Catia and Caroline, her sister Margaret “Peggy” Mildenberger, sister-in-laws Anne Mildenberger and Mary Mildenberger, brother-in-law Dennis Gass and fifteen nieces and nephews.
A memorial service is planned for the summer. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to either St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital or Oregon Public Broadcasting - KMHD Radio.
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