Gloria Jean Genovese's Obituary
Gloria Jean Genovese, loving mother, sister and aunt, died quietly at home on Feb. 17, 2024 at age 74 after a long battle with cancer. A resident of San Diego since 2013, she never regretted leaving the cold New York winters behind. Gloria loved to bask in the sun at Ocean Beach, watch the elephants play at the San Diego Zoo, see live theater under the stars at the Old Globe, and wander among the cherry blossoms at the Japanese Friendship Garden. She would often gloat that while the folks back east had had another snowstorm, she herself was wearing sandals and enjoying an ice cream.
Gloria was born Sept. 14, 1949 in the Bronx, NY, where she acquired an accent at an early age that she held onto with pride throughout her life. She attended St. Raymond’s School until the family moved upstate to Kinderhook, NY in 1963. Gloria graduated from St. John’s Academy in Rensselaer, NY in 1967.
While raising her three children as a single mother, she worked as a Sales Clerk at Macy’s department store. She often told her children that they were the most important anchor in her life, and took pride in all their accomplishments. Through the toughest times, she held her family together with love, determination and courage.
Her love language was food; she enjoyed cooking, baking and savoring a good homemade meal, and if she cared for you, she fed you. She was the Breakfast Cook and then Cheese Packager at the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, NY in the late nineties where she perfected her love of camembert and bumped elbows with chef Melissa Kelly (and once, even, with icon Martha Stewart!). At Baron’s Marketplace, San Diego, where she worked from 2015 onward as Product Sample Demonstrator, she reveled in chatting with customers about food and recipes, and experimenting with new combinations of ingredients. She made many friends among the customers and staff. Gloria had a generous, open heart, and her kindness shone brightly to everyone she met.
She is survived by her three children Beth Merriman, Joan Merriman, and Charles Merriman; her sister Dorothy (Todd) Hotaling; nephew Joshua (Kelsey) Hotaling and niece Jessica (Andrew) Stering; and her cousins Frank (Lois) Genovese, Nicholas (Mary Lou) Genovese, Michael (Robert) Sabatino, Gail (Tom) Greco, Marie Flahive, and Connie LoVecchio. She is predeceased by her parents, Carl and Agnes Genovese, and her sister, Margaret Cooper.
The funeral service will be held on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 12:30 pm at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego, with burial service following at Mt. Hope Cemetery. Afterwards, a short reception will be held at Greenwood Mortuary at 3 pm. In lieu of flowers, it was Gloria’s wish that charitable donations be made in her name to The Old Globe’s General Fund, Old Globe Theatre, P.O. Box 122171, San Diego, CA 92112, or to St. Paul’s Cathedral, 2728 6th Ave, San Diego, CA 92103
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