Important Legislation
Gladney lobbied the Texas legislature to have the word “illegitimate” kept off birth certificates of adopted and abandoned children. She succeeded in 1936, making Texas the first state in the southwest to legally remove the stigma of illegitimacy.
In 1951, Gladney helped to get a bill passed that gave adopted children the same inheritance rights as biological children and recognized that they should be legally adopted rather than placed in “long-term guardianship.” Ill health forced Gladney into semiretirement in 1960, but she remained active as an advisor until her death on October 2, 1961, from diabetic complications. Gladney is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Read more about this topic: Edna Gladney
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