Gloria Gay Stanley

Gay Stanley, age 62, passed away unexpectedly at home in Gardena on Tuesday, July 16, 2002. She was born July 6, 1940 in South Gate, CA and outside of living in Michigan for five years as a child spent her entire life in Southern California. She leaves two sisters and a brother-in-law, Candy McCain, Laurie & John Pollard. She also leaves two brothers, Louis George and Donald George of Idaho. Also, ones left behind are two nieces, Holly Young & Deanna Thompson and a nephew, Daniel McCain and grandniece Stephanie Young. Services were private.

GAY'S MEMORIAL

This page is to celebrate the life of Gay Stanley and to know a little more about her from her sisters and brothers.

Gay was born Gloria Gay George in Southgate, CA July 6, 1940, the first of five children and the “guinea pig” as she always jokingly said to our Mom and Dad. Outside of our move to Michigan in 1947 and back in 1952 she lived her whole life in Southern California.

She attended St. Eugene’s Catholic school in Los Angeles and graduated from there in 1953. She then entered Morningside High School in Inglewood and graduated from there in 1957 not quite 17 years old. She had been working at the Imperial Theater in Inglewood starting when she was 15 passing as older because of her height. She attended El Camino “Junior” College for two years where she pledged the sorority Chi Theta Chi. As her younger sister I can even remember some of those days. She did have fun! We still remember her and her sorority sisters dancing the “Charleston” in the living room and hitting the glass table! It of course shattered and fell away as testament to their great dancing! The sorority with their “brother” fraternity building floats in our parent’s backyard. Parties and more parties!

In about 1959 she applied for a job at Honeywell and the personnel manager there was Frank A. Stanley. There was “something” there because in October of 1960 she and Frank were married at St. Eugene’s Catholic Church. They lived in Manhattan Beach for a while then bought a home in Torrance, CA. sometime in 1963. I was married by then to Bob and we’d bring our baby Holly out there. When they moved to Palos Verdes in 1965 we continued to visit. It was such a beautiful home, which overlooked the Pacific Ocean. Our Mother passed away in 1966 and lives changed. Gay and Frank divorced in about 1969 and she moved back to Torrance. They did remain friends and even dated after the divorce for a while.

She frequently drove out to our home in Garden Grove and we had many great evenings together. I loved when she invited us over to her apartment. She was such a great cook. During this time, the 1970s she met Joe Kahoe and before long they moved in together and moved to a new apartment and finally to Dalton in December of 1980. They were together about 17 years and again a change.

Gay would come up to our home in Santa Rosa just about every Christmas. This was absolutely her favorite holiday and she surely brought the “spirit” with her. It just made our Christmas, too. She always went out of her way to pay special attention to her nieces and nephews and to be sure she brought the perfect presents for them. And if for some reason she couldn’t make the trip, she always sent a beautiful floral arrangement to let us know she was with us in spirit.

She would meet us in Reno many, many times for a quick weekend. She was so much fun to be with in Reno. One 1993 Reno trip with Gay, Joe, Bob and me we attended a doll show and I saw her buy her first doll. She was hooked from then on. It was a whole new world opening up for her and she absolutely loved it.

During her “adult” years she worked at Air Research, Tycor, TRW and Xerox, maybe more. She made lifelong friends at each work place, from college and her entry into the doll world. She was a beautiful woman and lovely sister. She had a wonderful sense of humor, very quick wit and always a kind word for someone. She cared very deeply about her family and friends. She made lifelong friends of Matt, who worked on her beloved computer, Janet, a fellow owl collector and Joe her upstairs neighbor and friend at her apartment where she lived for 22 years. She was always so elegant in her appearance and turned heads wherever she went and she didn’t even notice it. She didn’t have an ounce of conceit to her. She loved nice clothes and wore them well as all of her friends know.

She passed way too soon and will be missed forever and a day.