Gloria Jean Kilborn

Gloria Jean Kilborn

1928-2017

Gloria Jean Reinsmith Kilborn was born February 4, 1928 in Allentown, PA. She lived thru the depression and graduated from Allen High School in 1945 where she was a cheerleader and played basketball. After graduation, she worked for a year before beginning nursing school at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown. After completing a three year program she joined the Air Force Nurse Corps in 1950 as a 2^nd Lt. and flew medical evacuations during the Korean War. Around 1953 she met the love of her life, 2^nd Lt. Richard Ford Kilborn, an Air Force navigator. He had travelled to Westover AFB in Massachusetts to crew a medical evac plane. She left the Air Force in December of 1954 and married “Dick” on June 18, 1955. They were stationed in Bermuda. Dick’s career in the Air Force then took them to Charleston, SC, where their 3 children, Patti, Jeff and Linda were born. She spent the next 18 years of her life as an officer’s wife and Mom moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, Warner Robbins, Georgia, Redlands, California and finally to Del City, Oklahoma. In 1977, she decided to go back to nursing and obtained a position running the Surgery Clinics at the OU Health Sciences Center. She worked there for 20 years serving her doctors and patients with kindness and respect. It was during this time she obtained a bachelor’s degree from OCU. Her beloved husband, Colonel Richard “Dick” Kilborn passed away in 1987. She lived the remainder of her years serving her family and remaining active until the full onset of her Alzheimer’s began in 2013. We all believe that the last year of her life was given to us by the Lord to teach us how to love our parents well and how to die with dignity and grace. She was sweet and entertained us all until the very end. We were so blessed to have her with us. She was a great Mom. She has left behind a legacy of love for her children and grandchildren, Patti (Kilborn) Miller and husband David of Houston, Jeffrey Ford Kilborn and wife Susan and their children Garrett (wife Kaci) and Ford of Edmond, Linda Kilborn Veazey and husband Mark and her children Lindsey Frace (husband Ryan) and their children Ford and Sutton, Robert Lee (wife Meghan) and Allison Lucas (husband Martin) all of Edmond. She also leaves behind two sisters, Betty Reinsmith Bauer of Lancaster, PA and Nancy Reinsmith Hodgkins of Bartlett, NH as well as many nieces, nephews, and Miller and Veazey children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We especially want to thank the ladies who helped us care for her over the last months and days as though she was their own, Susan, Sabrina, Lorie and Morgan. You ladies blessed us so much. A memorial service will be 2pm Thursday September 14, 2017 at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.