Gloria Owen Covington

Gloria Owen Covington lived a life filled with joy, curiosity, compassion, humor and, most of all, love. It was love that compelled her to care so deeply for her family and friends, to lift up those in need, and to serve God and share his word. On Wednesday, March 13, 2024, her life came to a close with her family by her side as she left this world for her heavenly kingdom. She was 80 years old.

During her time with us, Gloria touched the lives of countless people, both those well-known to her and those who she may have met in passing. She took a genuine interest in everyone she met, seeking to better understand the lives of others and how they connected to her own. Gloria lived a life of service, realizing the joy and fulfillment that comes from seeing those she cared for succeed and grow and living out the charge to love one another as Jesus has loved them.

Gloria is survived by her loving husband of nearly 57 years, Howard, who devoted himself to her care through three years of treatment for leukemia. She is also survived by daughter Evan Covington Chavez and her husband, Edwin Chavez, and children, Kiley and Max, as well as son Owen Covington and his wife, Jamie, and their children, Lucy and Miranda. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Lucy Owen.

Gloria Clements Owen was born on Aug. 11, 1943, at Virginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia, fulfilling John and Lucy’s dream of having a child and completing their family. Her parents met at Craddock-Terry Shoe Corp., where they both worked, John, first in the stock room and later as a manufacturer’s representative, and Lucy, as a secretary. It was that work that took their family to Florida when Gloria was three, with her father calling on clients in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. In the Sunshine State, the Owen family spent their free time fishing in the state’s lakes and rivers, with her parents’ love of fishing running through Gloria’s early memories. Her home was surrounded by citrus trees that produced grapefruit, oranges, kumquats, and lemons.

The Owens moved to Charlotte in 1951, a city that would play a large role in Gloria’s life in the years to come. She carried fond memories of growing up in Charlotte in a neighborhood that at the time was just outside the city limits. Girls Scouts, youth choir at Myers Park Baptist Church, riding bikes in the neighborhood with friends filled her days. She attended East Mecklenburg High School before transferring to Myers Park High School, from which she would graduate in 1961.

Along with her studies, Gloria was active as a member of the Y Teens and as a letter girl for the Myers Park Band. Music ran through her high school years as she heard popular dance bands including the Hot Nuts, the Flamingos, the Drifters, the Rivieras, and the Catalinas. She recalls Charlotte during her years as a teenager and later as a young adult as “being a small town with a whole lot of people.”

Neither of Gloria’s parents went to college, but they knew the value of education and so encouraged her to pursue a degree. Her college career would mean a return to Lynchburg, where she was born, as she enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, now Randolph College. Though she enjoyed the experience, she was eager to get out into the “real world”, and in 1963 left Randolph-Macon for Kings College in Charlotte, a business college where she learned typing and accounting, paving the way for a job crunching numbers for a local insurance company.

Her return to Charlotte was fortuitous, for it was there she would meet the love of her life, Howard E. Covington Jr., who would always be “Sandy” to her. The two would become a couple after meeting at a party hosted by mutual friends, with Howard quietly asking for Gloria’s phone number right before her date for the evening walked her to her door. Gloria says she was “bowled over” by the young reporter for The Charlotte Observer, and that night she wrote to a friend to share that she had met the man she planned to marry. Howard, unaware of her plans, would finally propose marriage in August 1967, shortly before Gloria’s birthday. The couple were married at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte in November.

These were just the early chapters of what would become a rich and wonderful love story. Nearly inseparable, the pair would embark upon adventures both long and short including building a log cabin and experimenting with hops farming in Ashe County, North Carolina, toiling at Habitat for Humanity work sites in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Trinidad, embarking on new business ventures and traveling in Ireland and Italy. They navigated their Blue Hole canoe down the waterways of northwestern North Carolina (sometimes not agreeing on the best strategy to tackle the rapids) and took in the beauty and salty spray of the Caribbean from the deck of a clipper ship. Annual beach trips with friends offered a chance for relaxation, plenty of laughter and good food. Each year time was spent searching for shells, staring at the crashing waves, swapping jokes and stories, contests over the Scrabble board, and fostering dear and life-long relationships.

Howard and Gloria did this all as equal partners, combining their strengths, supporting each other and sharing in the joy and excitement that comes with living a life of purpose and curiosity.

Gloria’s dream as a child was to become a mother and then a grandmother, and that dream came true in 1972 with the birth of a daughter, Evan, followed a son, Owen, two years later. She would later say about that dream, “I achieved that and it was worth every minute — almost every minute.” She was a constant and supportive presence in the lives of their children, passing along to them her love of learning, her compassion for her fellow humans and her sense of humor. She instilled in them the importance of finding purpose and meaning in how you live your life, and her cheers and guidance through the years were invaluable to them. She taught Evan and Owen how to learn, how to parent, how to forgive, how to be patient, how to be strong and how to live a life driven by love. She adored her grandchildren, relishing the differences in their personalities and interests, and basking in the extended family that surrounded her.

The Covington family of four would leave Charlotte in 1975 for Raleigh, as Howard’s work covering the legislature took them to the state capital, and then in 1980 to Greensboro, where Gloria and Howard put down roots in the community that would grow stronger throughout the decades. Gloria embraced the community, becoming involved in schools and activities and volunteering at local nursing homes (including calling Bingo). She worked part-time for an accounting firm and later for Carolina Gardener magazine, which she and Howard founded and published for two decades. She became deeply involved in her church’s effort to resettle Montagnards in Greensboro from their homes in Vietnam and became so beloved by one family that they gave their newborn daughter “Gloria” as a middle name.

Those who knew Gloria will say that she was a woman who recognized how her Christian faith had undoubtedly and forever changed her life and how she lived it. Her faith was no secret. Whether you were a friend or a stranger, you saw the love, compassion and caring that it instilled in her shining through in her smile, her kind words, her easy offer to help you, pray with or for you, and support you during your time of need.

Gloria’s faith was rooted in and nurtured by her church, West Market Street United Methodist Church, and her long participation in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). She became involved in BSF in Greensboro upon the recommendation of a friend and was quickly embraced by this fellowship of women seeking to build upon their faith and know God better. Across more than twenty years with BSF she served as a children’s leader, a substitute teaching leader and area coordinator for substitute teaching leaders. The relationships she developed through those years remained dear to her, with none greater than the closer relationship she developed with God.

Gloria was an active member of the congregation at West Market Street, where her faith grew as she became involved in Sunday School, first as a participant and later as a teacher. She led numerous Bible studies for participants young and old, bringing her astute observations and deeply personal experiences to life in a way that resonated with those she taught. Her love of music found a home in the Market Bellringers, the handbell choir she participated in for thirty years. They would ring their joyous songs from the balcony of the sanctuary and annually on the sidewalk in front of the downtown church during the Festival of Lights.

Our time on this Earth with Gloria has come to a close. In our sadness about our loss but our thankfulness for her and the life she lived, a verse from Matthew rings true — “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master’s happiness!”

A memorial service to celebrate Gloria's life will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, April 6, at West Market Street United Methodist Church, 302 West Market Street, Greensboro, followed by a reception at the church.

Memorial contributions can be made to the West Market Street United Methodist Church Music Fund (Handbell Choir).

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.haneslineberryfhnorthelm.com