Gloria Musgrave Tolar

On Thursday, May 28th, 2020, Gloria Musgrave Tolar, of Pearl, Mississippi, went home to be with the Lord she loved while surrounded by loved ones at the age of 79. Gloria was born of pioneer stock on January 16th, 1941 in Yreka, California. Her father, Henry Musgrave, was the son of an English immigrant and had worked as a stagecoach driver and gold prospector. Her mother, Barbara (Liss) Musgrave, was from a Polish farming family in Nebraska and had lived in New York and Chicago before going out west with her sister. Henry was 62 and Barbara was 26 when they married in 1936. As a young girl, Gloria liked to frolic amongst the goats on her parents’ small mountainside farm along the Klamath River. After graduating from Yreka High School, she moved down to Sacramento to live with her cousin. While there, she met a dashing young Airman at a USO dance, Doyle Wayne Tolar from Mississippi (“Wayne” to her family, as they couldn’t say “Doyle” with the proper Southern pronunciation). Doyle and Gloria were married six months later in Reno, Nevada. Their first child, Denise, was born nine months after that. After Doyle was discharged from the Air Force, they moved to Bogalusa, Louisiana, where Doyle joined the railroad and they had two boys: Dennis and Darrin. They moved to Pearl, MS in 1973 when Doyle was transferred to the Jackson rail yard. Gloria worked for a vacuum sales company there and then several years as a receptionist for a prominent adolescent specialist in Jackson. She is survived by her husband of 60 years, Doyle Wayne Tolar, sisters-and-brothers-in-law Frankie (Tolar) and Glen Stogner and Debbie (Tolar) and Chris Jenkins, her daughter Denise (Tolar) Rickles, her sons and daughters-in-law Dennis and Shirlene (Brady) Tolar and Darrin and Tina (Collum) Tolar, as well as nine grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, and life-long friends. She was the most loving friend, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, or great-grandmother we could ask for. There will be a funeral service for Gloria, officiated by Brother Tommy Anderson, at 11:00 am on Monday, June 1, 2020 at Colonial Funeral Home in Columbia where friends may visit with the family from 10:00 am until service time. Burial will follow in Sandy Hook Baptist Church Cemetery assisted by Scott Carrier, Tony Carrier, James Carrier, Ryan Carrier, Andrew Downs, William Tolar, and Taylor Miller serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will include Matthew Tolar and Robert Tolar.