Gloria Marie Meyer

June 10th, 1938- September 3, 2014

World class shopper. Nordstrom regular. San Francisco 49ers fan. Impeccable dresser.

Gloria Meyer was all these things and more, but most of all she was a loving mother to daughter Jennifer Meyer DeVault.

Born on June 10, 1938, in Harvey, Illinois, Gloria was raised on the South Side of Chicago and worked at the phone company after high school. She married Gordon Meyer in 1959, moving with him to Lafayette, Indiana, where she helped put him through Purdue University. In 1963, the couple welcomed happy daughter Jennifer.

The family moved to California’s Bay Area in 1972, where Gloria volunteered at Jennifer’s school and later worked in retail at Mervyn’s. She and her friend, Birdie, found success with “Puffery Patch,” their own business that sold whimsical fabric-based artwork.

By all accounts, she tolerated crazy pets, crazy projects and was the voice of reason with two serial project starters in the house. She loved cats, but did not love to cook. She liked to travel and to listen to the music of James Taylor, Janis Joplin, the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Kris Kristofferson. Gloria kept up with current events and was hip to pop culture, consuming every issue of People magazine and tuning in daily to talk shows like Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson. A voracious reader, she devoured celebrity biographies and mysteries the same way she did Peppermint Patties and Tootsie Pops.

In 1998, she packed up and left California for Nashville to be near Jennifer. The joke was always that she was moving back to “the land of her people,” as her parents were originally from Tennessee. In Nashville, she became the honorary mom to all of Jennifer’s close friends the same way she had done for years in San Mateo. And Nashville finally became home when the city got its very own Nordstrom, also known in the Meyer family as “the mothership.” In her essence, Gloria was a quiet observer, not talking much but always watching everyone from the corner of the room and offering unique observations later (example: After a concert meet n’ greet: “Dwight Yoakam has great hands.”)

In short, Gloria was a quiet, loving person. A beloved daughter, sister, friend, and above all, a good mother. Services will be held 3 pm Monday at Hermitage Funeral Home and visitation one hour before service. Memorial contrubutions may be made to American Red Cross.

Arrangements under the direction of Hermitage Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens, Old Hickory, TN.