Gloria Isabel Marten

On February 16, 1930, Jay and Isabel Hill welcomed their daughter, Gloria Isabel, into the world in Wamego, Kansas. She spent her entire childhood in Wamego, graduating from Wamego High School in 1948, before beginning college at Kansas State University. After one year in Manhattan, Gloria transferred to the Emporia State Teacher's College, where she met and fell in love with Mervin F. Marten, a fellow student just returned from active service in the U.S. Army. Following her sophomore year, she left school to take a teaching position, and she and Merv married on November 25, 1950. Over the next five years, she and Merv had three sons, and Gloria became a homemaker and mother for most of the rest of her life. She and Merv spent the first 17 years of their life together in Topeka, then moved to Havensville and Onaga for 19 years, before returning to Topeka for the last years of their lives, some 19 years for Merv, and more than 27 years for Gloria. As her family grew up, and as she had grandchildren, one could always find Gloria's face at a school program and sporting event, even when it was worrisome. She was heard to comment after one of her sons' high school football games, "It is a good play if number (whatever her son's number was) gets up and goes back to the huddle." She was an enthusiastic mother and grandmother, delighting in knitting afghans for her grandchildren in their favorite colors, or condensing lifetimes of material into lovingly-made scrapbooks. Her love for her family was immeasurable. She loved playing bridge with friends, many of whom she had known since childhood, knitting, crocheting, and in later years watching K-State and KU basketball games on television. She faced a number of health crises over the years, and Merv died in 2005, after 54 years of marriage. Still, she was fiercely independent until about one year ago, when she became completely unable to walk, and spent the last year of her life at St. Marys Manor, in St. Mary's, Kansas. She developed her final illness in mid-December, and passed away quietly on Christmas night. She is survived by three sons, Judge Tom Marten, Dr. Fred Marten, and Brad Marten, two daughters-in-law, Dena Marten and Vickie Marten, a former daughter-in-law, Mary Marten, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. In addition to Merv, Gloria was preceded in death by her parents, Jay and Isabel Hill, and her sister, Dr. Natalie Hill. Visitation will be at Stewart's Funeral Home in Wamego on Friday December 27 from 6:00 pm to 7:30pm., services at 10:30 am on Saturday December 28 at Stewart Funeral Home. Interment will be at the Wamego Cemetery immediately following the service. Father Gerald E. Parks of St. Augustine's Anglican Church in Topeka, Kansas, will conduct the service. Memorials are suggested to the Columbian Theatre in Wamego, which was originally built by Gloria's grandparents, J.C. and Mary Rogers and may be left in care of the Stewart Funeral Home, PO Box 48, Wamego, KS, 66547.