Gloria June (Flowers) Stroud, 94, of Ormond Beach, Florida, passed away peacefully in her sleep on August 2, 2025. Gloria was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 1 ^st , 1931, to FC and Ada Lou Flowers. She was the oldest of three, with a younger brother, Charles, and a younger sister, Sandra.

When Gloria was two the family moved from Tennessee just across the Mississippi River to the small town of Marianna, Arkansas. Gloria's father was a funeral director and the family's residence was the funeral home, and she had many stories from her childhood with the funeral home as a backdrop. Growing up, she spent her summers in Mississippi, staying with her various aunts, uncles and cousins. Gloria attended college first at the University of Mississippi but transferred after a year to the University of Arkansas to pursue a degree in dietetics. After graduating college in 1952, she decided to go to Boston, Massachusetts, for a dietetic internship at the Brigham Hospital. At the Brigham she met the man who would become her husband of 64 years until his death in 2019, Robert (Bob) Stroud. Coincidentally, Bob's extended family hailed from the same Mississippi countryside as Gloria's, and they liked to joke that they decided to hurry up and marry before it came to light that they were actually cousins.

Gloria and Bob had two children, Robert Jr. (Bob) and Katherine (Katie). Over the years the family moved around a number of times, remaining longest in both Mountain Brook, Alabama, between 1965-1979, and Ormond Beach, Florida, where they moved in 1982. Gloria worked as a dietician while also raising her children, teaching nursing students at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and later working alongside Bob in his medical practice.

Gloria was an avid reader and an accomplished seamstress; she loved music, movies and, perhaps above all, SEC football. She also enjoyed knitting and cooking and was happy to open her home and table to friends and family. For many years she enjoyed working with ceramics in partnership with a friend, while also working with a different friend organizing estate sales. She was an active member of the First United Methodist Church of Ormond Beach and served on several committees, including helping organize the annual church rummage sale. She was involved in the Kiwanis Club and in Habitat for Humanity and frequently attended an annual storytelling festival in Tennessee. Gloria and Bob traveled widely throughout the US as well as to Europe, Mexico, Canada, South America, Japan and Africa. They had four grandchildren: Dean Stroud (deceased), Parker Stroud, Ada Monopoli and Jack Monopoli.

Gloria will be greatly missed by so many, including her children Bob and Katie, her daughter-in-law Meredith and son-in-law Dan (Monopoli), her grandchildren, her sister-in-law Sharon (Flowers) and sister-in-law Barbara (Stroud-Borth) and a number of nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Gloria's life and legacy will be held at Baldwin Brothers Funeral Home at 5:00 pm on Monday, August 11 ^th . In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Gloria's memory to a charity of your choice.