Gammon, Lewis McCullough, Edward
Florida, and two nieces Christina Ayers of North Carolina and Melissa Kekipi of Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Gloria Loretta Crevenstene Biles was born on October 29, 1926, in Houston’s St. Joseph Hospital, the elder daughter of George Graham and Lillian Marie Oriol Crevenstene. The family home was at 411 Rusk Avenue, now the site of the U. S. Federal Court Building and Tranquility Park. When Gloria was nine, her mother died, and Gloria and her sister went to live with their great-aunt Irene Mellinger and her husband John J. Mellinger, treasurer of Sweeney Jewelers. Three years later, their great-aunt died, after which the girls were reared by a close family friend.
Gloria was a lady of many talents. At an early age, she mastered the art of dressmaking and made her own dresses from couturier patterns for a number of years, even after marriage. She was an excellent chef, delighting family and friends with her culinary creations. Gloria obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration and enjoyed bookkeeping. Gloria loved music and possessed a beautiful soprano voice. She studied vocal performance for five years with Edward Bing, co-founder of the Houston Grand Opera and Houston’s premier vocal coach. Her greatest love, however, aside from that for her husband and family, was for the classroom, no matter which side of the teacher’s desk. After obtaining two master’s degrees, her greatest accomplishment was a Ph.D. from Rice University in Central European History. She taught for one year at the University of Houston Clear Lake and sixteen years at Houston Baptist University. As long as she was physically able, she loved participating in continuing education courses at Rice.
Gloria loved the Lord and her church, first at Houston’s First Baptist Church and then as a charter member of Tallowood Baptist Church. She enjoyed singing in the church choir and served as music librarian at Tallowood for many years. For all of her adult life, she worked with children in Sunday School from babies in the nursery to the fifth grade, teaching all the while.