Gloria "Lulu" Loucille Parker

After an incredible 90 year run the curtain has closed for Gloria “ Lulu” Parker. Mother, wife and friend of many.

She passed peacefully from this life on 2/15/23

Born in the small town of Winnsborro, Louisiana on June 16th, 1932. In 1948 Her mother Ileeta, sister Emma Jean and brother Walter moved to Upland, California when she was 15. She graduated Chaffee high school where her southern accent soon charmed Robert Brown and they were married for 22 years raising two sons, Allan and Larry.

Later Gloria remarried in 1976 to Dr. Larry Parker and lived a wonderful life with him for 38 years before his passing in 2012. Gloria helped with his medical practice until retirement and then volunteered at San Antonio hospital.

She enjoyed golf, painting, cake decorating, gardening and travel. She took an epic trip to Russia with her immediate family in 2016. Gloria was also a grandmother to 11 grand kids.

An unfortunate fall in 2017 put Gloria in a memory care facility where she entertained the staff and family with stories until she peacefully passed.

Memories

Her favorite color was blue and her favorite pie was pecan. When I was young I always thought She looked like Jackie Kennedy.

Mom was born on June 16th, which she constantly reminded us and everyone else close to her, in 1932.

She was born in Winnsborro, Louisiana, or Loosiana as I knew it until my teacher corrected me,

Mom was born to Walter Raul and Ileeta Matthews, had a younger brother Walter and older sister Jean. They had a small house off a dirt road on the poor side of the canal before moving into town when she was 7 years old. After her father died the four moved to California in 1948 to seek a better life. Mom was 15 years old and the girl with the southern accent in high school. She got teased for using words like “ yonder, of course, y‘All and chunk” As in , chunk me the ball. she could pull that accent out of its box when ever relatives visited, which was confusing for us as young kids.

They moved in a converted garage, with no hot water or bathroom, but was ok as they were used to that in Louisiana. 4 months later they moved into the house two houses down from where I stand today.

She met my father Robert “Bob” Brown soon after graduating high school.

They met at the coffee shop where she worked and my dad was just out of the navy.

She married at 18 in 1950 and her first son Larry William Brown was born in 1952.

I came along in 1956.

Our childhood was filled with 1960’s -early 70’s suburban life of “B”’s :

Bicycles, BB guns, bow and arrow( mom taught me how to shoot from the World Book Encyclopedia), a beagle,...black and white tv, and a real back yard? It was fun, it was the sixties, fast cars, cheap gas and things were simpler. Mom was a big part of our upbringing, making do on a small budget and making sure we had everything we needed. I was shocked to learn later that we were a lower middle class family. I thought we were doing pretty good and now, I wonder how she fed us on just $40 per week.

But life is a roller coaster, not a merry go round.

I’ll never forget my 16th Birthday, the cake, the candles, Larry was there, getting my drivers license and, our parents got divorced. Yet soon we had another Larry in our life.

She married Dr Larry Parker in 1976 having a wonderful life together until he passed in 2012.

She lived in Upland, Cucamonga, Upland, Az, FALLBROOK, Upland, FALLBROOK again. She said once, that she and Larry Parker moved every five years to keep it interesting.

She loved being a grandmother.

Her blended family include 3 of Larry’s kids and 11 grandchildren.

After retirement

She enjoyed her volunteer work at San Antonio community hospital, PTA, the Up with People group with my brother, painting Lulu, cake decorating , landscaping and gardening.

She love to garden. But with mom she would be pruning or hedging while we cleaned up the trimmings she was more of a gardening supervisor now that I think of it. Maybe that’s how I picked up management skills.

She raised two drummers and never complained of the noise saying that she could tell what kind of day we had from the drumming. She camped, we camped a lot, and she didn’t like to camp at all, but she went along with it and would fry the fish up after we had fished. She would take us, ok drag us, to every museum or forest ranger talk she could. Gloria taught my older brother to sew and unknowingly started his career. I never did become an archery master.

She was a good mom.

Later in life she liked to golf and travel. She traveled with both Larry’s, her husband and once with my brother to Ireland. My brother, myself and our wives toured Russia with her in 2016. And it was one of the best trips we have ever had.

Mom will be remembered for her family holiday dinners, kind heart and occasional cringe worthy zinger that would give us something to talk about on the drive home. if you knew mom, you knew it was coming. But, it always came from a good place of course, with love.

And she. Would love a good zinger even in final days. In memory care.She entertained the staff

With some stories.

Mom had a bad fall in 2017 and remained in memory care facility until she passed.

We moved mom close to us and we grew closer over her last few years and we talked for hours. Hundreds of hours and we grew closer. before the fall I would visit maybe 3 to 4 times a year before. She would tell stories of her youth, which occasionally shocked me if they were true, and her life “ filling in the blanks” as we called it.

All I would have to say was “tell me about the time....” and it was off to the races. The stories of course would take turns, well they would take major off ramps and wander everywhere. Sometimes it would be a fascinating and insightful trip of stream of consciousness.

I’m not sure how much was accurate and I would update my brother and cousins with these stories that they had never heard. We also had discovered photos while moving her that most of us had never seen. It was nice knowing that our parents were once just goofy kids too, made dumb mistakes, had hardships and yet lived a life.

She had a good life and will have a good afterlife.

I’ll miss our talks.