Charlotte Gamble

1921-2006

Charlotte Gamble, 85, of Xenia, passed away Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006, at Greene Oaks Health Center. She was born Sept. 3, 1921, in Camden, N.J., the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Major.

She was a member of St. Brigid Church and retired from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Test Wing. She received seven Annual Outstanding Rating Awards from 1974 to 1981, received the Fourth Annual Secretary of the Year Award on April 22, 1981, and received Annual Sustained Superior Performance Awards from 1981 until her retirement in 1988.

For all of the hundreds of pilots with "The Right Stuff," who passed through the halls of the 4950th/4952nd Test Wing, where "Char" worked and were gifted with the pleasure of working with her, I leave them with the poem "High Flight":

"Oh! I slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silver wings; sunward I've climbed and joined the numbling mirth of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things, you have not dreamed of -- wheeled, soared and swung, high in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace where never lark or eagle flew -- and while with silent lifted mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God."

She was preceded in death by her husband, William R. Gamble; sister, Caroline Carion, and brother, Tom Major. She is survived by her son, Jeffrey Gamble, of Las Vegas, Nev., and a granddaughter, Lawren Lenore Gamble of San Francisco, Calif.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 15, at St. Brigid Church, 312 Fairground Road, Xenia, with Rev. Kenneth Schartz officiating. Visitation will be held from 8:45 until 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Neeld Funeral Home, 1276 N. Detroit St., Xenia. Burial will be in St. Brigid Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to a favorite charity.