Gloria McGowan

Longtime Tottenville resident Gloria McGowan, 84, a retired registered nurse and a loving mother and grandmother, died Saturday in Care One King James, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.

Born in Queens, she was raised in East Haven, Conn.

She received her nursing education at the former Brooklyn Hospital and graduated in 1950. She worked as a registered nurse in emergency care before going to work at Richmond Memorial Hospital, now Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay, where she primarily worked in the maternity department. She was a nurse there for 30 years, until retiring in 1989.

When her sons were young, Mrs. McGowan was a den mother for Troop 21. She served as vice president of the Mothers Club at Our Lady Help of Christians R.C. Parish and was a treasurer and member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the South Shore Little League.

She enjoyed cooking and gardening, and loved to crochet. She had crocheted more than 50 blankets to give to her grandchildren, and to relatives and friends.

She was an avid traveler, and had journeyed throughout the continental United States and to Hawaii. She visited the Canadian Rockies and had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Spain, Finland, Turkey, Egypt, Jerusalem and around the Cape of Good Hope.

Mrs. McGowan was a parishioner of Our Lady Help of Christians R.C. Church, Tottenville.

Her husband, Joseph, died in 1975.

Surviving are her sons, Timothy, Steven, Kenneth and Douglas, and 12 grandchildren.

The funeral will be Tuesday from the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, Tottenville, with a mass at 11 a.m in Our Lady Help of Christians Church. Burial will follow in Ocean View Cemetery, Oakwood.

Services: Our Lady Help of Christian's RC Church Tuesday, July 15, 2014 11:00AM

Visitation: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home Monday, July 14, 2014 2-4 & 7-9PM

Cemetery: Ocean View Cemetery

Location: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home

Church: Our Lady Help of Christians R.C.Church