Gloria Swanson Stryker

Gloria Swanson Stryker, 94, of Clifton passed away Monday, June 12, 2017 at Clifton Lutheran Sunset Home. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 A.M. Thursday, June 15, 2017 at First United Methodist Church with Rev. Mary Gean Cope officiating. Burial will follow at Turnersville Cemetery. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church.

Gloria was born Gloria Swanson White on November 13, 1922 here in Bosque County.
She grew up in the Clifton area and graduated from Clifton High School. She attended several colleges until she received her teaching degree. She taught elementary school class for almost 20 years all over the world as she moved with her military husband.

In March of 1945 she married Clarence “Billy” Stryker and moved to Seattle, Washington to be with him when he was not out with the fleet. Billy was in the Navy during World War II.

In 1947 they had a son, Donald Ray, at the Clifton hospital. In 1950, Billy joined the army and was assigned to Okinawa, an island in the Japanese island chain.

To show you what kind of woman Gloria was, she packed her stuff and her three year old boy into a car and drove to San Francisco to ship out on a Navy Freighter to Okinawa. Those who were around back then will remember traveling cross country by car was not all freeways and smooth sailing, especially with a rambunctious three year old. Nevertheless, she made it with her sanity still intact.

After two years in Okinawa, the family came back and spent several years at different posts around the country. Gloria was teaching at the different military base elementary schools. In 1956, the family moved to Germany where she taught in the base elementary school. They had three years working and traveling around Europe, seeing the sights in Paris, Rome, Munich and Salzburg. They even made it to the world’s fair in Brussels, Belgium in 1958.

In 1960, they returned home, well to Massachusetts, for a year and a half before moving half way around the world to Tehran, Iran during the time of the Shah. The three years they were there was a real eye opener about that part of the world.

Upon return to the US, Gloria and Billy were stationed in Massachusetts again while Don went off to college. Gloria taught elementary school until they retired in 1968. They moved to Ft. Worth where she changed careers to be an office manager for a Colonial Penn Insurance company. Billy kept his uniform on and taught ROTC at Eastern Hills High School.

Finally after retiring again after twenty years in new careers, they moved to Clifton. Here they joined the United Methodist Church. Gloria joined the Eastern Star and also became a charter member of the Wednesday Dairy Queen ladies club.

Gloria was kind and willing to help out in the church kitchen, driving folks who could not drive themselves, and buying and delivering meals to friends who had become homebound. Eventually she had a stroke and had to slow down and move to the nursing home, She gradually declined until she passed away on June 12, 2017.