She was one of ten children and grew up in the rural Alabama countryside. After graduation from Southern Choctaw High School in 1961, she moved to Mobile. While working at First National Bank of Mobile, she met William Byars. They were married in 1962 and had their daughter, Cheri Lynne in 1963. William moved to Dallas to attend computer school and eventually moved the family to Dallas when he was hired to run a data processing center for a local furniture company.
Glendine went to work in Dallas for Smith Alarm Systems while she and William continued to raise Lynne and make a home there. She eventually became the Chief Financial Officer for Smith Alarm Systems. In 1980, she and William divorced. While Lynne was off to school, she then met James McCarty and they married in 1982.
Glendine left Smith in 1991 and became a licensed realtor. Jim had been in the oil business and built custom homes, and in 1996 they moved to Horseshoe Bay, Texas to start a custom home building company there. Jim did the design and construction management, and Glendine managed the books as well as the interior design of the homes. All the people that they built homes for, became great friends.
In 2012, Jim started slowing down and they decided to move to the smaller community of Emerald Bay on Lake Palestine in Texas. This was a golf course community and Glendine and Jim played a lot of golf and enjoyed the smaller community, staying active in the many social groups. Glendine being the type A person that she was and not wanting to slow down, she joined a local realty company and continued selling real estate.
Glendine enjoyed her many “sister’s weeks” in Alabama spending time with her 6 sisters and eating lots of ice cream! Glendine and Jim enjoyed golfing in Scotland with friends. They spent time visiting Jim’s kids in Charleston and Florida as well as visiting his brothers in Ohio and California. And her favorite time was summers when her grandson Travis would come to spend a week or two and they packed so much fun in the short time they had together, it took a year to recover so she could be ready for the next summer visit! Jim passed away in 2020 and Glendine moved back to Dallas. She was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) which is described as Parkinson’s disease on steroids and spent the last 2 years battling the effects of this horrible disease.
Glendine is survived by her daughter Lynne, husband Steve and grandson Travis Brody. Also, sisters Imogene Beard, Devon Gibson, Grace Pilot, Alice Higgins (Jerry), Pat Cotten (Buddy), brother Ronnie Giles. In addition to Lynne, she is also survived by her stepchildren Sue VanCuren (Will), Robin Cappelli (Tim) and Jimmy McCarty (Theresa). And their children and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband and siblings Jim Giles, Leon Giles and Sybil Shepherd.
Services to be held at Radney Funeral Home, 3155 Dauphin Street, Mobile, Alabama 36606 on Monday, September 16, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. Visitation will be at 1:00 p.m. Graveside immediately following at Mobile Memorial Gardens, 6040 Three Notch Road, Mobile, Alabama 36619.
