Gloria Jean Fenn

Gloria Jean Fenn of Norman passed away Tuesday evening, March 7 after a year of declining health which ended in a brief and debilitating illness. An upbeat and openly friendly person, her contagious smile—which was one of her identifying characteristics—shone through even in the discomfort of sickness. Wherever she was, she made circumstances brighter and people happier with her spontaneous and unqualified smile.

Her accomplishments in the areas of work, love, service, and achievement were extraordinary. The versatility of her skill sets allowed her to be a musician, mother, home-maker, library assistant, laboratory technician, and speech pathologist. Her undergraduate degree was from Southern Methodist University, and her graduate professional degrees were from The Baylor School of Medicine (Dallas), and OU Health Sciences (OKC). Her first job was with the Wadley Research Institute of Dallas which specialized in the study and treatment of leukemia. Following an eighteen-year absence from working outside the home (during which she raised and launched a family), she returned to the medical world, working in a Norman clinic for several months without pay in order to resurrect her skills for a field that had advanced into new technologies. After putting her husband through graduate school, and helping with the college bills of her children, she decided to pursue what had become a special passion—working with children. She often commented that she would rather talk to children than adults and, in fact, a natural rapport with kids was one of her true gifts. She returned to school (OU) in order to complete some courses that would allow her to enter the OU School of Speech Pathology. Upon completing that grueling academic journey, she applied for a job with Sooner Start with the intention of working with children. It was in that job that she started the highly successful program called Rhythm Babies (a music and movement program for children and parents) in the Norman, Noble, and Moore public libraries.

When she applied to Sooner Start, one of the interview questions was, “What job have you enjoyed the most?” Her immediate answer was, “Being a mom.” And indeed, she was lovingly and proudly involved with her children, Deborah Lynn and Dale, every step of the way. She was the primary reason they developed the character and abilities to graduate from premier colleges in New York and Massachusetts. She clung to her children but also supported them with everything she had when it came time for them to leave the nest. The only sickness she endured that was worse than her last illness was the empty nest syndrome. It was real and it was painful.

Gloria Jean’s unpaid job as a minister’s wife was often as time consuming and challenging as her paid jobs. She was organist, pianist, choir member, choir director (children), church officer, UMW officer, circle leader, committee member, Sunday School teacher, church visitor, card-sender, funeral meal provider, mission tripper, program giver, and all around volunteer. Outside the church she was involved in PEO, became a PTA president, worked as a museum docent, and served on the boards of Mary Abbot House and Xenia Institute. Small and short (never over 5’ 1”), she was, nonetheless, a gifted and powerful presence. One of the organizations in which she worked honored her with a plaque of recognition which said, “Though She Be Little, She Is Fierce.”

Tennyson, in grieving the death of his closest friend, wrote:

I sometimes hold it half a sin

To put in words the grief I feel;

For words, like Nature, half reveal

And half conceal the Soul within.

Words fail when it comes to loss. They fail also when it comes to writing about someone who has done so much and meant so much. No words can fully encompass Gloria Jean nor completely express the grief those closest to her are

feeling, but it is a sin not to say something. The felt vacancy she leaves in our hearts is, perhaps, the loudest and most articulate tribute that can be given.

Gloria Jean was born and raised in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Her Southern breeding instilled in her a keen sense of propriety and etiquette mixed with acquired grace. She was a graduate of SMU where she was a bit of “Miss Everything”—honor student, campus beauty, campus favorite, Mortar Board, sorority president. It was in college that she met her husband, Phil, an aspiring minister who carried on a religious relationship with her by parking and sparking behind the seminary chapel. During their 63 years of marriage they lived in Texas (Dallas), New Mexico (Belen), and Oklahoma (Fairview, Oklahoma City and Norman) where they served Methodist Churches and formed friendships which endured through the years. Their many years together have been blessed in many ways, but especially by the birth and enjoyment of their two children and two grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Mason and Thyra Salter, a brother, Lowell, and his second spouse, Nancy, whom he married after the death of his first wife, Betty. Gloria Jean is survived by her husband, Phil, her daughter and spouse, Deborah Lynn Fenn and Michael Rock of Chicago, her son and spouse, Dale Fenn and Molly Stephenson of Fairfax, Virginia, her granddaughters, Mikaela and Kiara, her younger brother and spouse, Stanley and Marion Salter of Natchitoches, and several nieces and nephews.