Gloria Ann (Tomasi) Ritter, beloved wife, mother and grandmother went to be with our heavenly father on April 30, 2016 after a short battle with cancer. She is now reunited with her parents, husband and daughter. President of a charity organization, logistics supervisor at an aircraft depot, wife of a two-time war vet, mother to four children, librarian to 10,000 students, Gloria lived a full and exciting life. Loved by all who met her, she leaves behind a vast family throughout San Antonio and a hole in the Catholic and San Antonio communities at large. Even to the end, she loved life every day and though initially not ready to leave this world, she left for the kingdom of God with her three sons by her side.

Gloria was a true daughter of San Antonio having spent the first three decades growing up in San Antonio from the 30s through the 50s. She then married into a military life and spent the next decade traveling and seeing the world before returning to Texas (Corpus Christi) to raise her children and begin a life-long career. During which time, San Antonio continued to be her family home until eventually returning after retirement to live the last two decades of her life.

Born to William Tomasi Jr. and Consuelo (Gaitan) Tomasi on March 3, 1933 (making her favorite number 3), in San Antonio, TX, Gloria was the oldest of two with her little brother William (Buddy) Tomasi III following her a year later. Her father's family name was well established in the San Antonio Italian community since the late 1800s when the patriarch Antonio Tomasi immigrated from Italy to establish numerous businesses and land purchases. Her father was a US Navy veteran who worked many careers during his lifetime (trucker, produce and meat market owner, bookkeeper, oil producer and rancher), many at the same time. Savvy in business and finance, he made his wealth in the various businesses and shrewd investments. Gloria's mother was part of a huge family that immigrated in the early 1920s after a civil uprising in Mexico forced her father, the mayor of their town, to flee with his family. Her mother was one of nine children all of who spread throughout San Antonio in the 1930s to 40s leaving Gloria with cousins on practically every corner.

Gloria attended St Michael Elementary School, then Incarnate Word Academy graduating high school in 1950. Scholastics came fairly easy for her as she skipped a grade, graduating a year early. She enjoyed the extra-curricular activities of school such as basketball and tennis (where she was the school doubles champion one year) and loved school/city dances and gala functions in those years. Gloria attended Incarnate Word College for a year before beginning her first professional career at the USAF Air Logistics Center at Kelly AFB from 1952 to 1960 where she rose to supervisory positions in charge of managing logistics and repairs at one of the largest aircraft depots in the world. With her cousins Marta & Raquel Saenz at her side, her nightlife was full of dances, clubs and galas. Because San Antonio was a training base for foreign officers stationed at Randolph AFB in those days, she often found her dance card filled with the foreign pilots. In the early 50s, she joined the International Sorority of San Antonio, a fundraising club hosting fashion shows and charities to support women in San Antonio. Constantly in the paper for numerous social events, she was elected three terms as president of the club.

With all her glamour and social activities aside, Gloria loved her life with her parents so much that she remained there until the age of 27. She would later explain that a feeling of family responsibilities was one of the main reasons. In 1955, her little brother's wife Aurora unexpectedly passed away leaving him with two children (Cynthia Ann three years old and William (Little Buddy) at two) to raise. To better provide for his family, Buddy elected to enlist in the Army and become an airborne paratrooper. They all thought it best for him to leave his kids with his parents where they and Gloria could tend to their needs. His military commitment lasted much longer than they thought as he eventually went to pilot training and flew fighters for 40 years with the Texas Air National Guard. This left Gloria as a surrogate mother/big sister to them for five years, a duty she truly enjoyed and continued to act in for decades afterwards.

In 1959, her life would take a drastic change when she was asked by her cousin Hilda Mendez to make a hospital visit on her husband who was recovering from surgery at local Ft Sam Houston. There, she met his roommate Sgt. Rudolph Ritter who was sent to Ft Sam to undergo back surgery from an injury sustained while stationed in Germany. After a very short courtship, they married in April of 1960. Rudy was a Bronx, New Yorker, first generation German-American who joined the Army at the age of 17 before the onset of the Korean War. He had made the Army a career while serving as a paratrooper, an MP and finally an aircraft mechanic. Gloria described their wedding as the event of the decade, but only had a month to put it all together due to the Army's insistence that Rudy return to Germany. The Ritter clan came down from New York to see their youngest of four children and last to get married. Rudy asked his brother John to be his best man and Gloria thought it most appropriate to ask his wife Jackie (who she had never met) to be her maid of honor. Little would she have realized, Jackie would grow to be her best friend. After a quick honeymoon in Acapulco, Gloria joined Rudy in Stuttgart, Germany where they were to start their family.

Germany in the early 1960s was a fascinating place to be for a daughter of Texas. Living not far from the Iron Curtain and with little time passing since the end of the Nazi movement, Gloria found life as a military wife exciting in Europe. But not the best place to learn to cook, something she had not picked up since she still lived at home prior to meeting Rudy. However, she was only a couple of countries away from one of her favorite cousins Marta Saenz who did marry one of those foreign pilots (hers was from Belgium), so family was always nearby. On February 18, 1962, Gloria gave birth to the first of her four children Tony, and before they returned to the states, they had their second child Stephen on February 22, 1963. To keep in step with the precision timing of birth, once returning to the states, they had their third child Eric on February 22, 1964 while stationed back in San Antonio, TX. They completed their quartet with their only daughter Melinda on May 13, 1965. As a family, they moved to several duty stations in the 1960s to include Ft. Eustis in Virginia, Ft. Ord in California and Ft. Hood in Texas. However, these assignments were sandwiched with three one-year remote tours for Rudy to Vietnam between 1965 to 1969. Each time, Gloria would pack up the kids and move back into San Antonio to live with her parents, Cindy and Buddy. How to fit eight into a three bedroom house every other year was always an amazing feat, but when your country calls, you make sacrifices.

After completing his third Vietnam tour in 1969, Rudy received an assignment near Gloria's home town - Corpus Christi NAS in Texas. Here they figured would be their longest stay so they bought a house in Flour Bluff and were planning to take root when his number was up for a fourth tour to Vietnam in 1971. Fortunately he was now over his 20 years of service and, since he felt he was not likely to come back after a fourth tour in country, he decided to retire instead. A year after arriving in Flour Bluff, John and Jackie Ritter joined them with their three girls (Vicky, Stephanie and Lisa). This began a decade long family tie between the seven kids and the two sister-in-laws. During her early years in Flour Bluff, Gloria was a mainstay for volunteering - St Paul Catholic Church (where she spearheaded the annual BBQ bash for over 30 years among many other things), Cub and Girl Scouts Den Mother, Little League supporter, school parties and many other local functions. It was then she began to establish herself as a pillar of the community, easy to do with four active kids participating in everything the town had to offer.

In 1974, Gloria decided that the kids were old enough for her to go back to work and began working at the Flour Bluff Independent School District. After spending a summer in the administrative offices of the school, she was assigned to be the library assistant at the High School. She would remain there for 24 years attending to the library needs of an entire generation of Bluffers to include all four of her children and all of their friends. How often can a kid be able to talk to their mother about what happened in school that day and expect her to know every person involved in the story? It was an unusual situation that placed her square in the middle of the lives of her children growing up creating an even tighter bond to each. Every kid in school knew who she was, which assured her kids of a certain level of protection as freshmen. It greatly helped that she was well loved by the school staff and often referred to by many of her students as a second mother, demonstrating the level they confided in her. Decades later, these students would reveal to her on how much she touched their lives.

After graduation, all three of her boys were college bound for the University of Texas at Austin and Arlington to learn their trades that would shape their lives. Tony studied Psychology at UTA and became a behavior psychologist working with people with intellectual disabilities in the Dallas area before moving to Los Angeles, CA for a few years and then returning back to Dallas to start a company that he would eventually move to San Antonio to be close to Gloria. Stephen earned Aerospace Engineering degrees from UT and University of Dayton while serving 24 years in the USAF taking him around the country and the world before returning to San Antonio in 2013. Eric received an Architectural Engineering degree at UT but turned instead to a vocational calling to the priesthood and was ordained a Catholic Priest in the Archdiocese of San Antonio in 2003 where he still preaches the good word of God today. Melinda was the free spirit of the group and immediately moved to New York City at a young age to experience the excitement of the Big Apple. From there she traveled the world, not as a tourist, but as a sojourner living and experiencing the cultures abroad.

In 1998, after serving over 10,000 students, Gloria retired from her career in the library to prepare for her next phase of life as a full-time grandmother. Tony married in 1989 to Patty Benefield and had two daughters Breezy (in 1991) and Madeline (in 1996). This gave Gloria and Rudy great gratification to be grandparents and to be able to spoil their grandchildren without repercussions. Twenty-four years of guiding students through the perils of high school gave her special insights that her grandchildren were able to benefit from. She had the ability to guide, yet support them in life decisions at every step of their lives.

Like all families, death can often come early to some. In 1992, this was the case with her daughter Melinda. Not only was she her only girl, but Melinda projected a shine to Gloria that was special to her. As independent as she was going off to live in NYC at the age of 18, she was still her little baby and she never truly got over her early passing. The death of her nephew William (another apple in the family's eye) followed by her father in 1998 convinced Gloria it was time to return to her home city of San Antonio permanently. She and Rudy made their final move together in 1999. Rudy who was already ill wanted to make sure she was well rooted at home amongst all her family and friends before his passing. She spent the first five years of her return to San Antonio caring for him and her 90 year old mother before they passed away in 2002 and 2004. But instead of falling into the despair of depression from so many losses in such a short period, she rose above it and began a new exciting life with all her extended family and reignited many of her old friendships from her swinging 50s days. She became a center for volunteer work for her church Our Lady of Guadalupe in Helotes and Assumption Seminary in San Antonio. She was thrilled to attend the 50th and then 60th class reunions from her Incarnate Word class of 1950, something she had not been able to do before. All this was exhilarated by the return of each of her three sons one by one to reside near her in San Antonio over the next decade. What more could a parent want.

In 1995 her youngest son, Eric, who had spent the previous five years volunteering and working for numerous Catholic institutions throughout the US and even abroad, informed her that he finally found his calling and was joining the priesthood. Gloria's reaction was surprisingly not that of a proud mother, but instead she broke down and admitted she wanted him to get married and have a family to add to her list of grandchildren. Eric joined an order that sent him to California and DC to study over the next five years only to return to join the Archdiocese of San Antonio in 2000 and was ordained in 2003. Who would have guessed that her son's calling would open so many doors for her. She found very quickly, being the mother of a Catholic priest not only gives you a clearer path to heaven's gates, but offers so much for you on earth. As Eric moved from St. Pauls (internship) to St Bonaventure (deacon) to St Leo to St Luke's to Gonzalez, TX to St Dominic to Our Lady of Perpetual Help (in Selma), Gloria was treated as an icon, a celebrity in the church community revered by all his flock. She discovered that her church family would grow with each parish. Her social calendar was so filled that even her kids had to check her availability first when planning something. It was a glorious way to spend the last decade of her life and she so loved every day of it, pretty nice bonus for someone who cried at the thought of losing her son to the church.

Following in his younger brother's footsteps, her eldest son, Tony, moved his business to San Antonio in 2006 to be with closer to his family. This brought not only his children to be with their grandmother but they had Patty's mother, Peggy Benefield move in with them giving Gloria another partner in crime to run around the city causing all kinds of chaos for restaurants and retail stores as they formed a group of her old cronies that offered her the type of fun-filled living she had not experienced since her 20s. The final piece for her ever evolving world came in 2012 when her middle son Stephen finally retired from the Air Force and was going to return to Texas and, to add more icing to the cake, was finally getting married and bringing his bride-to-be Sharon Ricks. In order to aid in their transition, Gloria allowed them to not only move in with her for what ended up being five months while hunting for a new house/business offices, but also to move every piece of her furniture (minus two bedroom sets) out of her house and into storage so they could operate their business out of her house before relocating to their new place. As she told them, "Whatever it takes to get you back". Living in tight quarters with your future mother-in-law can be a trying ordeal for many, but Gloria made it so easy and wonderful for the new couple that it will always be a memory of delight for all three. On November 10, Gloria finally got to help plan a wedding she described afterwards as the event of the decade (sound familiar?). All the Ricks family from Indiana and many Ritters from all over the country came in for what was a gala-type wedding. This was what Gloria had waited two decades to see. And as a side bonus, she received two new grandchildren (granted college age), Christen and Felicia Lizza from Sharon.

In October of 2015 Gloria was diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer. The last six months of her life were all about her, whatever she wanted she was going to get. Although often tired from the treatments and the cancer itself, she kept filling her calendar with lunches, movies, concerts and many other galas. She moved in with Tony and Patty (nice to have two nurses for daughters-in-law at a time like this) and began the hard days of saying goodbye and finalizing her will and bequeaths. In February the family threw a large "Primos" party inviting all her relatives as a final chance to spend time with her when she was still at her best. They flew in from all over the country to have their last moments with her, she was so thrilled. For Easter, the family followed up with another party with just as great a turn out. She spoke about how fantastic these events were for weeks afterwards.

God was kind to Gloria, allowing her good enough health to accomplish so much in her last months, and when her time was up, he made it come quick and peaceful. Upon her death she had all three of her sons, both grandchildren, her daughter-in-law and even her surrogate daughter Cindy at her bedside to help her take her next step to enter the Kingdom of God and be with her loved ones who passed before her. She will be terribly missed by all whose lives she touched. No words can explain the void that can never be filled here on earth due to her passing, but all who knew her realize that as she entered through the pearl gates of heaven, she heard God say "Well done, my good and faithful servant".

FUNERAL SERVICES

SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2016

Visitation will begin at the church at 6:30 P.M

Rosary will be recited at 7:30 P.M.

St. Dominic's Catholic Church

5919 Ingram Rd.

San Antonio, Texas 78228

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Visitation will begin at the church at 11:00 A.M.

Funeral Mass will be offered at 12:00 PM

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church

Evans Rd @IH 35

Selma, TX 78154

Interment will follow at
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery

MEMORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Sisters of the Holy Spirit

300 Yucca

San Antonio, Texas 78203

or

Assumption Seminary

2600 W. Woodlawn

San Antonio, Texas 78228