Mary Glenn Gibbs Calhoun

A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held at the First Congregational Church, 225 S. Interlachen Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789, on Saturday, January 11th at 11:00 AM, with a reception to follow in Fellowship Hall. Mary Glenn was born October 1, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father, Glenn Oliver Gibbs, was a chemist and a talented pianist and organist who played a theater organ in New York City for silent movies as well as for churches. Mary Glenn’s mother, Bertha Devine Howard Gibbs, was an educator and taught English and Latin in South Dakota before returning to Alabama to marry Mr. Gibbs. Glenn and Bertha raised three children, Jimmy, Mary Glenn, and Jack, during the Great Depression. Mary Glenn was singing and dancing at a young age, performing in school musicals and singing at church and in public at age 16. She won a full music scholarship to the University of Alabama where she earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance. She won another scholarship by becoming a finalist in the Miss Alabama Pageant. While at the University of Alabama, she met Thomas Marion Calhoun, a dental student who had a nice baritone voice and sang with her in the Wesley Foundation Choir. After graduating and moving back home, she began dating Tom. They were married December 20, 1952. In 1958 after finishing dental school and four years of Navy life, they moved to Winter Park, Florida so Tom could open his dental practice. Tom and Mary Glenn had three daughters, Beth, Kay, and Janie. Mary Glenn was initially a soprano soloist at the First United Methodist Church of Orlando where she and Tom met some of their closest life-long friends. At the same time, she began teaching music to young children in the preschool at the First United Methodist Church of Winter Park. In 1963, the family moved to Maitland, and around this time, Mary Glenn was hired as a soloist at First Congregational Church and began teaching music at the First Congregational Preschool. Two of Mary Glenn’s favorite hobbies were water skiing and playing bridge. On Saturdays, she was either attending a couple’s bridge party, going to the symphony, or water skiing with her family at the lake. She would get her hair done on Friday, slalom around the lake without getting her hair wet, and be ready to sing in church on Sunday morning. Around 1975, Mary Glenn had a spiritual awakening and felt called to help a small Presbyterian church in Winter Park by directing their choirs for two years. Dr. Tuck, the new senior minister at First Congregational Church, asked her to come back and direct the children’s choirs where she was greatly needed. She gave the children of this church nineteen wonderful years of musical and spiritual instruction. Mary Glenn had a gift for directing musicals and recruited many enthusiastic choir parents and other church members to participate and help build sets, make costumes, choreograph, arrange and play instrumental parts, supervise children, and more. Among these productions were 100% Chance of Rain, It’s Cool in the Furnace, The Story Telling Man, Down By the Creek Bank, and Jonah. Upon her retirement from directing the children’s choirs in May of 1996, which was the day of her final musical production, the Mayor of Winter Park proclaimed it “Mary Glenn Calhoun Day” and presented her with a plaque. During this time, she lost her beloved husband, Tom, of 34 years. She picked herself up and expanded her horizons, all while continuing her education and teaching music to young children at the FCC Preschool and in the community. In addition, she joined the Friendship Force and began to travel the world and learn about new cultures firsthand, which greatly enriched her life. She even sold her house to Jane and moved to a condo on Lake Maitland. She loved viewing the courtyard and lake and spending time playing cards and games with her new friends there. In 2006, Mary Glenn retired from teaching music at the preschool. This gave her more time to travel, play more bridge, and volunteer at Leu Gardens. She loved to take groups of young children through the gardens to teach them about the flowers, nature, and history of the property on their level. She also had more time to spend with her grandchildren, Kim, Lanie, Ricky, Alicia, and Tommy. Over the next several years as her health gradually declined, Mary Glenn’s faith in God grew. And when her time on earth was drawing to a close, she was ready to go and knew she had lived her life to its fullest with no regrets. Mary Glenn is preceded in death by her husband, Thomas Marion Calhoun; parents, Glenn Oliver Gibbs and Bertha Howard Gibbs; and brothers, William James Gibbs and Jackson Howard Gibbs. She is survived by her children, Beth Calhoun Alford, Mary Kay Gonzales, and Mary Jane Claus; five grandchildren, Kimberly Alford King, Elaine Elizabeth Alford, Ricardo Calhoun Gonzales, Alicia Jane Claus and Thomas David Claus; first cousin, Thomas Jordan Gibbs, Jr.; and two nephews and a niece. Flowers may be sent to First Congregational Church, 225 S. Interlachen Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789, and donations may be made to First Congregational Church with "Tom Calhoun Scholarship Fund" in the memo line.

Mary Glenn Gibbs Calhoun

October 1, 1929 - January 2, 2020