Gloria Mae Wilson

Gloria was born on July 17, 1923, in Coral Gables, Florida to Gordon McFarlane and Edith Ermatinger, later moving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at age 17. Following high school, Gloria was admitted to Duke University and was beginning the transition to North Carolina and Duke when a family emergency called her home to Florida. Gloria continued her education later, embarking on the first of her many travel adventures by enrolling with her best friend Sis in business school in Chicago.

Gloria returned to Florida following business school and applied her new skills working in a hotel, as well as for her family's book and appliance store businesses. It was in her father's bookstore that she met the love of her life, Ritchie Wilson, a bombardier / navigator in the US Air Force, and Ritchie and Gloria were married on December 1, 1945. They had 3 children, Marilyn Lee, born January 7, 1952; Jeffrey Michael, born April 6, 1953; and Gregory Alan, born July 21, 1955. In 1955, Gloria was baptized in the Christian faith.

Over the Air Force years, Gloria and family moved several times, from Florida to Texas, Hawaii, Japan, and Arizona. Her out-of-the-home activities were a major part of her personal identity, and during this time, Gloria held various paid and non-paid positions, including church secretary, Air Force Office of Special Investigations administrator, administrator for a missile Site Activation Task Force, and editor of various informal publications.

Following Ritchie's retirement from the Air Force, in 1963 Gloria secured a position working for the Air Force space program in the Bay Area and the family moved to California. Over the years, working first for the Air Force at Philco / Ford and later Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation, Gloria's position in the USAF space program rose from senior secretary to become their highest placed (often only) woman working in quality assurance. She loved her job, in which she was highly respected, frequently being called on to travel around the country to work in government and private corporation facilities.

Gloria retired from Air Force civil service in 1985 to spend more time with Ritchie, who had earlier retired from NASA in 1984. She took retirement at first somewhat reluctantly, given her love for her professional life, but afterwards never looked back. Gloria loved NFL football, reading, deep sea fishing, visiting casinos to play video poker, creating beautiful knitting and needlework, but most of all traveling. The couple embraced retirement, traveling to all 50 states, most Canadian provinces, and extensively internationally. After retiring, they moved from the Bay Area to Oregon, then to Yuma, Arizona, for 18 years, before moving to Merced, California, in March of 2009.

Gloria is survived by the family she so loved, and loved her: daughter Marilyn Lee Kennedy and her husband Ron of Mariposa; son Jeffrey Michael Wilson and wife Taryn of Mapleton, Oregon; son, Gregory Alan Siegfriedt-Wilson and wife Kathy of Crestwood, Kentucky; grandchildren Michael Siersema of Fort Worth, TX; Timothy Siersema of New Orleans, LA; Bridget Lynch of Washington; Julia Siegfriedt-Wilson of Chicago, IL; Heidi Ameli of Pleasant Hill, CA; “adopted” granddaughters Terryl Barbera and Jamie Kennedy of Riverbank, CA; great-granddaughter Hannah Siersema of New Orleans, LA; “adopted” great-grandchildren Darren, Bryant and Ireland Barbera of Riverbank, CA; and nieces Lorrie Ohland and Cheryl Smith. Gloria also leaves behind many long-time friends around the United States.

Gloria was a very special person and her family will miss her so very much. She will be interred next to her beloved husband on February 12, 2016. No services are planned.