Gloria Elaine Brockman went to her eternal home at 11:04 p.m. Monday, July 31, after a short struggle with aplastic anemia and a long life.
Gloria was born March 15, 1932, in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, to Hugo and Clara Peterson. She had two brothers, Lowell and Donald, and two sisters, Darlene and Joy. Some of her earliest memories consisted of chores on the family farm. “I’d gather eggs and the hens were kind of naughty,” she had said. “I helped my mom chase the pigs, and neither of us liked that very much.”
Growing up during the Great Depression and witnessing the dirt and grasshoppers of the dust bowl years set Gloria up to be a resilient, resourceful woman the rest of her life. (And to truly take to heart the principle, “Waste Not, Want Not.”) Gloria attended a little oneroom schoolhouse on a hill, graduated from Wessington Springs High School in 1950 and later attended Mitchell Business College and then worked for Keiser Health Services. One week, some fellow secretaries decided to take a little trip to Rapid City. That same fateful week, a young airman from Ellsworth Air Force Base was also dragged along by his friends into the city. When he saw Gloria walking with her friends, he was immediately smitten in the most unexplainable way.
“I thought she was quite the gal,” he said. “And I said to myself, ‘Now that’s the gal I’m gonna marry. It was love at first sight… I don’t know. She was a cutie, I’ll tell you that!”
Embarrassed by the attention from this strange Air Force man, Gloria walked across the street into an Indian museum with her friends. The officer and his friends followed. Not knowing what to say to him, Gloria panicked, pointed to a display case of an Indian braid and said, “Oh, he had nice hair, didn’t he!”
Robert Brockman and Gloria were married one year later on July 18, 1954, in the country Little Salem Lutheran Church after months of exchanging letters - described merely by Bob as “mushy” – between Rapid City and Sioux Falls.
“He went back home to Hyde Park,” Gloria said. “But he came back. He was telling somebody because of the traffic. I said, ‘Yeah?’ I think it was more than that.”
Always a country girl at heart, Gloria gave city life in Boston three weeks a try and then the Brockmans moved back to South Dakota. After living in Brookings for a bit, they settled in Wessington Springs in 1958.
Bob and Gloria had two daughters, Teri (born in 1956) and Lori (born in 1958), and one son, Dan (born in 1962). Bob worked many jobs, as a business owner, a sheriff’s deputy and substitute teacher. Gloria worked as lunch program director and at Weskota Manor.
Tragedy struck when the Brockman family lost Lori in 1991 after seven long years of battling brain cancer. Gloria was the caregiver for her daughter during this difficult time. She would later lose her other daughter Teri to cancer in 2019. But even despite such immense hardships and loss, Gloria always remained strong in faith that her family was looked out for and maintained a positive attitude on life.
Although Gloria stayed in South Dakota, she loved traveling, and was able to visit England with her sister. A fond memory of hers consisted of watching “beautiful Cuban men” while on a trip with her brothers in the 1940s.
Gloria remained close to her sisters after her brothers passed. A dedicated mother and wife, family was highly important to her, and she was very proud of her children and grandchildren.
Gloria also took it upon herself to stay up-to-date on what was happening in other people’s lives, making sure every kindness was always returned and thank-you notes made it out on time. Birthdays and holidays were always marked by a card for each grandkid, with a check and life updates in her meticulous cursive handwriting.
Gloria knew how to make a house a home. The flowers were always watered, the chairs pulled up at the table for company and the doors unlocked. Everyone in the community knew how welcomed they would be in the Brockman house.
She made delicious rhubarb crisp and a mean rack of BBQ ribs with baked beans. Dinners were around the dining room table except on the occasions her grandchildren or husband convinced her to let them eat in the TV room.
Gloria was a talented painter of animals and landscapes, gifting her oldest granddaughter with a horse painting one year. She also was a dignified lady, never going anywhere without her red Avon lipstick, a comb in her purse, and a carefully coordinated outfit most likely from JCPenney (one of her favorite stores).
Although Gloria and Bob sometimes went at each other in a battle of wits and stubbornness, they always made up. The week before Gloria’s passing, they celebrated 69 years of marriage and 70 years of knowing each other, surrounded by family, friends and love.
Gloria was never rich, but gave what she had to offer, which was love. She was not perfect, but she was pretty darn close.
From sassing the doctors, to critiquing the hospital’s gingersnap cookies for their lack of ginger, Gloria was Gloria until the end. Warm hands, warm heart and always open to what life was going to bring her.
As Gloria herself said during her last night at home, when she caught Bob and other family members sneaking peanut-butter fudge cookies and decided to join in: “Glad I got in on this.”
Gloria Brockman is survived by: her husband Robert Brockman; her son Daniel Brockman, his wife Rosemary and grandchildren Courtney, Nicole, Matthew and Kaitlyn; her son-in-law Claude Burgess and grandson Cohen; and her sister Joy Baker. Many nieces, nephews and friends.
Preceded in death by her daughters, Teri Burgess and Lori Brockman, her parents, one sister, two brothers and Robert Brockman’s parents.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday August 11, 2023 at Our Saviors Lutheran Church. Visitations 5-7 p.m. Thursday August 10 at the church with prayer service at 6:30 p.m. Burial Prospect Hill Cemetery.
