Gertrude Alice (Trudy) Madden passed away on January 14, 2017 at Woodland Manor in Springfield, Missouri. She was 95 years old.

Trudy was born in Charleston, West Virginia on May 10, 1921. Her parents were Floyd McKinley Linger, a farmer, and Gertrude Boggs Spencer, a secretary. Her mother was the youngest of 12 children, so Trudy had many aunts and uncles. Three of her favorite aunts taught music. They arranged dance lessons for her and started her on voice and piano lessons themselves. They were good teachers and Trudy was a good student. During her teen years, she practiced the piano diligently. When she graduated from High School, she had already shown exceptional talent, and accepted a scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon where she would earn her undergraduate degree in piano performance.

From this point on, music played a central role in Trudy's life, but her experience at Wesleyan had another profound effect on her life. There she met and fell in love with Charles Frank Madden, an English major. When "Frank" joined the Army Air Corps and went off to Texas to train as a bombardier, Trudy travelled there too, and in Houston on November 27, 1943 they were married and she became Trudy L. Madden.

When her new husband left for the European front, Trudy returned to WV to finish college. As the war was ending, Frank returned safely and their first child, a boy named Mirth, was born in Charleston in 1945.

The couple then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. While Frank completed his studies, Trudy studied piano at the university, took care of Mirth and gave birth to their second son, Michael, in 1947. Two years later a job offer at Stephens College in Columbia brought them to Missouri.

In Columbia, Trudy didn't have a piano until an elderly lady heard her play at a party and bought her one so that she could practice at home. She was also asked to be the organist and choir director at church, and since she had only limited experience at playing a pipe organ, she began taking lessons from Heinz Arnold, the teacher at Stephens College.

Meanwhile, in 1951 Frank and Trudy had their only daughter and (of course) named her Melody. In 1956 they had a son, Mark, who was premature and born deaf. Having a deaf child was especially difficult for Trudy, whose life was filled with music that this child would never hear. It was only a few months later that the couple was told that another child was on the way. Their fifth and final child was another boy and they named him Matthew.

During their years in Columbia, Trudy began to write short stories and poetry, and while working part-time jobs and raising a large family she earned a Master's Degree in English at the University of Missouri. After completing the degree, she stayed on to teach at the University and continue writing and publishing her work.

The family stayed in Columbia for 17 years altogether. They moved when it was found that the best school for the deaf in Missouri was in St. Louis, and that attendance required residence in St. Louis County. So that Mark could attend, Trudy accepted a position at Meramec Community College where she taught English while completing another Master's Degree in Counseling. Frank was hired as Dean of the Undergraduate College at Webster University. On a trip to Ireland, Trudy purchased a harp, and now was able to take lessons from the harpist with the St. Louis Symphony.

It was during the family's 17 years in the St. Louis area that Trudy became an advocate for, and participant in, the women's rights movement of the 60s and 70s. Her passion on the subject affected almost everyone around her, but no one more than her daughter, and to this day Melody attributes her confidence, independence and strong personality to the example set by her mother.

Trudy and Frank always loved to travel, and when the University offered Frank the position of Director of European Campuses, they saw it as an opportunity. Trudy retired from teaching and they moved to a village near Leiden in the Netherlands (Holland), where they lived for three years. During this time they took many opportunities to travel, going to such places as the British Isles, Denmark, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain, Gibraltar, Egypt, Malta, Switzerland and even the Soviet Union.

When Frank eventually retired from Webster, the couple moved back to the states and built a home on the remote farm in WV owned and still occupied by Trudy's elderly parents. Here they spent the next 20 years. Trudy had time to devote to her music once again. She continued to write. She was asked to play the organ for their church so she found a teacher, Bruce Entsinger, and continued her studies on that instrument. She played her Irish harp for area groups, weddings and other special occasions. She also enjoyed gardening and photography. Many of her photographs won prizes at the County Fair. She and Frank did book talks for area book clubs and libraries and shared their many travel photos and experiences in programs at the Community College.

The couple stayed fit and walked 5 miles before breakfast every day, but when it became too difficult for them to drive back and forth to town, they moved to Springfield, MO where their son Mike and his wife and son live. When her daughter Melody retired from teaching in New Mexico, she too moved to Springfield.

Trudy and Frank lived independently for another 6 years before moving to the Manor at Elfindale, where they became a familiar sight sitting side by side in their wheel chairs holding hands. Then in 2015 they moved to Woodland Manor where Frank passed away on the same date in 2016 on which Trudy passed away in 2017.

Trudy is survived by her five children, Melody Pierson, Mirth, Mike, Mark, and Matthew Madden, and five grandchildren, Ezra Nye and Nicole, Briana, Riley and Kailey Madden. She will be missed by these and many others who knew her.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, February 11, 2017 at 2:00 PM at St. John's Episcopal Church, 515 E. Division St, Springfield, MO 65803. Online condolences may be made at www.gormanscharpf.com