MARVA PATRICIA GASS

Our mother Marva Patricia Hill was born November 10, 1947 in San Antonio, TX to Richard Olander Hill and Augustine Hill who preceded her in passing and are welcoming her home. Our mother was reared under the guidance of her mother and grandmother, Rachel James Smith. Our mother welcomed to the world 2 brothers and a sister in which she help guide and created a many a mission for which led to many laughable moments. Mother was baptized at an early age at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in San Antonio, TX. 

Mother graduated from G.W. Brackenridge H.S. and later attended Texas Woman's University where her goal was to become a veterinarian. After one year, she came to the realization, “This ain’t for me!”, and after some soul searching our mother determined her life would best be served by being in service to her country and so joined the United States Army, in which she served for 10 years. Her service to America was spent assisting men and women upon returning from Vietnam to heal their mental wounds.

While in service and stationed in Landstuhl, Germany, our mother met James Leon Gass; in which their union was of twenty-eight years. Mother, now Marva Patricia Gass, embraced Samantha J Gass as her own daughter and later welcomed to their union Augustine Frances Gass, Rachel Lynn Gass, James Olander Gass and Richard Thomas Gass. Upon completing her 10 years of service with the United States Army mother then became the primary caretaker of her home. 

Upon our return to San Antonio Texas, in 1985, mother worked with Bexar County mental health and then later worked for Laurel Ridge, continuing her work treating the mentally ill. We knew our mother as a person of strength, comedic efforts, and a taker of risks. On more than one occasion she would introduce us to a spontaneous adventure. For example, she got us our first glimpse of SeaWorld before we even knew it was SeaWorld by pretending to be a psych evaluator who was there to complete an assessment of those to be working with the sea life. Please keep in mind she arrived to the gates of Sea World with her sister in the passenger seat and four children sitting in the backseat of a Dodge wooden paneled station wagon.

MOM, her siblings knew her as the General.

Our mother was most certainly a fighter as she fought for life as a sickly child, she managed to survive after a car accident off the side of a mountain, a severe asthma attack in 1987 and a cardiac event in 2011. Mother received the diagnosis of breast cancer 8/11/2017 and fought her best fight until 7/6/2019.

Marva Patricia Gass was preceded in passing by her daughter Augustine Francis her parents Richard and Augustine Hill. She leaves behind to celebrate her life her daughter Rachel Lynn Gass- Small (husband Samuel), sons James Olander Gass (wife Cheryl), Richard Thomas Gass, and daughter Samantha Gass-Berg (husband Buck). Grandchildren: Daunte Olander Small, Jacob Samuel A. Small, Makayla Jade Gass, Hudson James. Gass, Melanie Jewel Gass, Frances Berg and Tabitha Berg, brother Richard Olander Hill, Jr.(wife Josephine and son Ryan, Roland and Ronald), sister Phyllis Maria Johnson (daughter Latrice), and brother Thomas James Hill,  as well as a host of cousins.

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