Gloria Ann McKuin-Thumlert
Current Addresses:
332 East Wakefield Blvd.
Winsted, CT 06098
860-373-7996
(May to October)
3818 Cypress Run Road
North Fort Myers, Florida 33917
239-997-8762
(November to April)
After my graduation in 1956 I moved to Memphis and entered nurses training at St. Joseph
Hospital. After about six months I felt that his career was not for me. I then went back home
and attended a cosmetology school in Helena. I continued to work in Helena until 1958, when I
decided that I needed to broaden my career opportunities. I then moved to Memphis and
attended Physicians Office Assistant training school. Upon graduation I went to work at John
Gaston Hospital where I worked in the clinical laboratory as blood tech. I was first living in the
Girls Club and my friend and our fellow classmate, Pat Pounds had moved to Memphis and was
living there as well. Both Pat and I liked to dance, so we volunteered to become USO and
Salvation Army hostesses. Pat and I decided to rent an apartment together. One night at a USO
dance Pat and I met my husband Don at a USO dance. Don was in the Navy attending the Naval
training school at the base in Millington, Tenn. Don had a car and Pat talked him into helping us
move to the new apartment. After the move he asked me for a date, and three months later we
were married on November 20th, 1959, in the Navy chapel on the base. This was not in my
game plan, but nearly 47 years later, we have had a great life together.
Don's orders took us to the state of Washington where we were based at Whidbey Island Naval
Air base. Most of the three and a half years we stationed there we lived off base in the small
fishing town of Anacortes. There our first daughter Tina was born October 1961. Our
Washington experience was wonderful as we had some fun times and met some wonderful
people there, which are still some of our closest friends today. The community was very small
and jobs were scarce for Navy dependents, however, I was able to work part time before my first
daughter Tina was born in October 1961. Don was originally from Los Angeles and after his
enlistment we moved to Van Nuys in southern California in May 1963. Don went to work in the
aviation at Western Airlines and I did daycare in my home for a while. I enjoyed the children so
much, and it was profitable, so I decided to buy an existing stand-alone daycare center in 1963,
which I operated until my second daughter Donja was born in August 1966. In 1968 my husband
went to work for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, an aircraft engine manufacturer. At this time we
bought a home and moved to Canoga Park, Calif. While in Canoga Park my son Rusty was born
in January 1969.
Pratt and Whitney transferred my husband to work at Lufthansa Airlines in June 1970.
Don, our three children and I moved to Hamburg, Germany. Again it was a great experienced
and we really enjoyed our two and a half years we lived there. We took the opportunity to travel
all over Europe, and visited almost all of the European countries. I even learned enough German
to do all my shopping and communicate with friends. Here again we met some wonderful
German friends that we still stay in touch with. My oldest daughter Tina attended the
International School in Hamburg, and during an event at the school I met Donna Oprey (our
classmate) where her child was also attended the school, as her and her husband were also living
in Hamburg at the time, small world! While we resided in Hamburg I did not work, but became
involved with the American Women's Club activities.
Pratt and Whitney reassigned Don to work at South African Airways in Johannesburg, South
Africa. We all moved to Johannesburg in September 1973 and found a beautiful home in
Woodmead, which was a community north of the city of Johannesburg. We enjoyed the good
life in South Africa for two and a half years, as most people did not realize that the area was very
modern and the weather similar to southern California. While there, our family was required to
go out of South Africa every three months to then return and renew or temporary visa. This was
great as we were able to visit all the surrounding African countries at the company's expense.
We made several three-day trips to Victoria Falls in Rhodesia (before all the troubles and
eventual takeover). We were fortunate to have lived there during the time the government was
stable and there was no civil unrest, which enabled us to live in a safe environment. I again
joined the American Women's Club and continued involvement in the Johannesburg chapter.
We returned to the US in January 1976 to live in Glastonbury, Connecticut, which is just outside
of Hartford, when Don joined the International Marketing Division of Pratt and Whitney at the
corporate headquarters in Hartford. No way did I ever think that a girl from Arkansas married to
a guy from southern California would wind up living in the cold northeast. Don left Pratt and
Whitney in 1978 and went into business for himself. During the first years I worked for him in
the front office and did the bookkeeping (math was never my favorite subject) until the business
stabilized. During my children's school years I did the normal soccer mom things. I became a
Bluebird leader, Campfire leader, Cub Scout den mother and became a taxi driver to every kids
sporting events you can name. When I had a little free time I worked on and off with my
husband until my oldest daughter was out of high school and my other daughter and son were in
high school.
I wanted to get back into the workplace and do my own thing for a while. Since I liked working
with small children, and had my own daycare center in California, I decided to purchase another
daycare center in Connecticut. I purchased an existing fairly large size center in Rocky Hill, CT
that was called Kiddie Kampus. To do this I had to attend classes to obtain a head teachers
certificate and daycare center director license from the state of Connecticut. I owned and
operated the center for nine years. After the little kids finally gave me all my gray hair, I sold the
center.
By this time my oldest daughter Tina had married and blessed us with a grandson and
granddaughter, and my other daughter Donja also married and gave us two grandsons. wanted to
enjoy my own grandkids and not someone else's kids. We had purchased a lakefront cottage at
Highland Lake in northwestern Connecticut in 1984 and after my working career I was able to
spend the summer at the lake and enjoy it with my grandkids.
My husband finally retired in 2005. We sold our home in Glastonbury and purchased a winter
home at The Heritage in North Fort Myers, Florida. We are really enjoying our retirement and
have become very busy with all the activities in our community. We sometime ask ourselves
how we ever had time to work for a living. We are now official snowbirds and have the best of
both worlds, winters in warm Florida and beautiful summers at the lake in Connecticut.
I will say that the last fifty years of my life has been fun, exciting, adventurous, interesting and
luckily very little sadness with no regrets. There are all kinds of love and I think I have had the
best of them all. Love of my parents, love of my family, love of my husband and love of many
good friends over the years.