Gloria Luckett Boertlein

Gloria Luckett Boertlein was born on April 25th 1923 in Washington, DC to Thomas James Luckett and Helen Henderson Luckett. Raised in Washington, DC and Capital Heights, Maryland, she was a 1941 graduate of Maryland Park High School, Gloria Luckett was was on an ice skating date in late 1941 on the National Mall when when she and her date heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on a car radio. Her date was Paul Leonard Boertlein, her future husband of 51 years and father of their two children and then-freshman at George Washington University. Gloria, like her children's "Boomer Generation" was born four years after a Great War (The War to End All Wars). Her Father Thomas returned from the American Expeditionary Forces in Meuse Argonne, France. During the World War II years, Gloria and her Mother and younger brother were moved to Chicago, Illinois because of the threat of Axis invasion of the two American coasts and her Mother's position with Naval Intelligence.Following WWII, Paul and Gloria were married in Chicago Illinois and settled in the suburban former tobacco community of Camp Spings, Maryland in Prince George's County. The Luckett family has deep roots in Southern Maryland.Son Paul Leonard, Jr., born 1948, and daughter Lynn Katherine, born 1953, were their two children. Daughter, Lynn, had special needs in an era when special education was in it's nascent years and Gloria and a group of forward-looking pioneer educators and volunteers fought for acceptance, budgets and equal treatment for these students, county-wide, state-wide and nation-wide. Gloria was known for her no-nonsence visits to the County Board of Education Superintendent's office. Clad in her trademark hat, white gloves and gold lapel pins she sought equal treatment for all students and she and like minded neighbors and concerned Moms had no qualms about expressing where they stood on issues.A seventy-year member of St Barnabas Episcopal Church in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Gloria celebrated her fifity years of Altar Guild Service several years ago. In April of 2023 at her 100th Birthday Celebration, Gloria emphatically expressed that "dark chocolate" was her secret to longevity Gloria was a life-long reader of American and British Biographies, Clancy mysteries and a "spicy" historic novel now and again.