Gloria Lee Monsey

Gloria, a 4 foot 10 inch bundle of energy, was born in Warren, Ohio to Pete Matyas and Rose Wanco Matyas. In later years, Gloria would reminisce about the halcyon days spent with her beloved sister Diane, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Trumbull County, Ohio. But, with the Depression in full force, Gloria’s father moved his family to Los Angeles where he built a successful poultry business at the Farmers Market. While a student at Fairfax High School and USC, Gloria would often work weekends in her father’s store. It was on one of those occasions that she met the love of her life, Captain Richard E. Monsey, USAF, a young Hoosier with a knack for golf and the use of a phrase that should not be printed in an obituary.

Gloria and Rick’s 55-year marriage would produce four wonderful children, Lisa Monsey (children Katie Stanutz, Rob Stanutz); Rick Monsey; Greg Monsey (wife Julie and children Jackson, Ricky, Emily, Ellie); and David Monsey. Gloria’s greatest pleasures in life were having a house full of family, attending children’s and grandchildren’s sporting and school events, tailgating during IU and Notre Dame football games with friends, neighborhood get-togethers, traveling to Chicago for weekend getaways, family reunions in Warren, Ohio, and cooking for the holidays.

Gloria, always pushing forward, would continue to work after her marriage and started as a stewardess for United Airlines where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the supervisor responsible for all west-coast air ticketing, a major accomplishment for a female during that period. This also served to ignite her wanderlust that would so dominate the second half of her life.

In 1982, her eldest son tragically died. In order to help her heal, Gloria went to work for Creative Travel and, in true “Gloria fashion” purchased the company two years later and transformed it into Custom Travel, a full service travel agency. During that period, Gloria would travel around the world seven times and fondly recount countless experiences such as visiting Cypress with Helen & Jim Noland and meeting Archbishop Makarios III; researching and locating her husband’s Italian family in Ravenna, Italy; climbing the Great Wall of China with Kai Binford; and taking countless trips with Barbara Burris.

Gloria belonged to many organizations including SKAL, St. Margaret’s Guild, Stansfield Circle, 500 Festival Committee, “The Coyotes”, IATA, Virtuoso, and Hillcrest Country Club.

Gloria was predeceased by her husband, Richard “Rick” Monsey and her son, Rick. Surviving her, besides her children and grandchildren, are sister, Diane Forester (children Mark Friedman; Julie Jaffe (children Georgia, Nick); and Jennifer Lechter (husband Ariel and children Eliana, Zack, Josh, Daniella)) as well as many relatives in Warren, Ohio and other cherished family members.

Visitation will be from 3:30-7:30 PM on Sunday, August 11, 2019 at Leppert Funeral Home (740 East 86th Street, Indianapolis) with a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated at St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church (4100 East 56th Street, Indianapolis) at 1 PM on Monday, August 12, 2019. Interment follows at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the Richard M. Monsey Memorial Scholarship Fund for Cardiovascular Research (950 N. Meridian Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN 46204).

Online condolences are available at: www.leppertmortuary.com