Gloria Ethel Painter was born to Hubert and Ruby Malone Painter in Wichita Falls, Texas on April 22, 1932. She was the third child born to Hubert and Ruby, having lost an older brother in infancy. She grew up most of her childhood in Wichita Falls with an older brother Jerry and a younger sister Lucia. She moved to Nocona when she was in Middle School. She was active in school in a variety of events and like most of the family worked in Painter’s family grocery store. She graduated from Nocona High School in May of 1949. She attended Howard Payne University in Brownwood after graduation. After her Freshman year, she married Paul Bagby Smith in July 1950. The young couple made their home in the Kerrville area where they gave birth to a son Jerry Paul Smith in May of 1951. Paul taught school at Hunt and Gloria played the piano in the Hunt Baptist Church. 

The couple moved back up to the Nocona area where Paul went to work for an oil company. The couple lived in Nocona for several years and a daughter Jena Lesa was born on March 17, 1955. Shortly after her birth the couple moved to Bowie where Paul went to work for the Bowie Gas Plant. Their daughter Jane was born in Bowie on September 25, 1956. The couple divorced in 1957 and Gloria moved back to Nocona. Her three children moved to live with Gloria’s mother and father Ruby and Hubert Painter.

She went to work for the Nocona Telephone Company. She married Bob Kafer in 1958. She had her fourth child, a son Joe Bob Kafer on March 3,1959. The couple made their homes in Wichita Falls, Waurika, and Lubbock. During those years, she worked as an administrative secretary for an electric company, an accounting firm, and a grocery wholesale company. She also worked on the family farm helping when they lived in Waurika. They divorced after 13 years of marriage and Gloria moved back to Nocona and went to work for the Nocona Boot Company, for a number of years.

 She married Bill Wade, and the couple made their home in Alvord, Texas. She worked on the family farm helping to run the watermelon stand, and also worked in a ceramic business in Alvord.  She also worked many years for the Wise County Tax Office in Decatur. She finished up her major work life with the Denton State School where she worked for nearly 20 years. After a divorce and her retirement, she moved back to Nocona where she helped to care for elderly patients assisting with bill paying, transportation, and helping with household meals and other tasks. .

She will be remembered for her countless cards, letters, and notes she has sent to many people across her lifetime. She was generous to a fault, and loved to celebrate life with a good meal, a game of Hand and Foot, or some other table game. She usually had a jigsaw puzzle out somewhere working on it. She cared for many children in Bethel Baptist Church as a nursery worker, and was active in the Carpenter’s Shop - Senior Citizen’s Center and nursing homes calling Bingo, and playing games and sometimes delivering meals.

She loved to sing and play the piano and enjoyed doing her Minnie Pearl routine at Christmas every year for nursing homes, civic clubs, church gatherings and other social events.  She was a diehard Texas Ranger fan.  She enjoyed traveling and enjoyed gospel singing conventions. She loved her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and the multitudes of friends that she made her family.

She passed away in the Pecan Tree Manor in Gainesville, Texas after a brief illness on May 15, 2024.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Hubert and Ruby Painter and infant brother, her brother Jerry Painter and wife Mary, sister Lucia Johnson, and husband Jerry, by her youngest son Joe Bob, and her oldest daughter Jena Lesa, by two sons-in-law, Dr. Mike Fenoglio and Joe Geurin. 

 She is survived by her son Jerry Smith and wife Brenda of Valley Mills, Texas and daughter Jane and husband Joe Tettleton of Arlington, Texas, by ten grandchildren, and sixteen great –grandchildren, a host of nieces and nephews, cousins, and friends she made family. A visitation will be held on Sunday, May 19, 2024, from 1 P.M. until service time at Bethel Baptist Church, Nocona, TX. A funeral service will follow at 2 P.M. with Pastor Jerry Smith officiating. Interment will follow in Nocona Cemetery.   

Memorials may be made to Bethel Baptist Church, the Senior Citizen’s Center or the charity of your choice.