Born in 1904 to Sarah Myers and George A. Washburn, Gladys moved with her family from the Heyworth area to the Padua area when she was 12 yr old. In 1927 she graduated from Mennonite School of Nursing, a member of the first three-year class there. She worked variously as a private duty nurse and later a staff nurse at Mennonite and the McLean County Tuberculosis Sanitarium.
She wed Linder W. Hacker, an Illinois State Normal University professor, in 1942. They couple retired to Phoenix, AZ, in 1952. He died in 1972 and she returned to LeRoy in 1986, where she died in 2000. She is buried in Springfield alongside her husband. Gladys was active in the Methodist Church.
The collection includes a nursing school history, two yearbooks, newsletter, photographs, etc. from the Mennonite School or Nursing.