GLORIALEE MCCLURE

April 18, 1952 to December 1, 2011

By Katharine Blossom Lowrie

A knack for humor

Glorialee McClure understood something about human nature. The Florida bond specialist—a Pembroke Pines resident who dreamed of someday buying a farm and raising animals—preferred laughter to tears. She had a knack for humor, could whip out a wry aside in the time it takes to blink.

It was a familiar refrain, “You could have been a standup comic, Glowie,” people would say. Due to her effervescent nature and sunny approach to life, many called McClure “Glowie.” Others called her “Glo” or “Gloria.”

His mother’s generous spirit

The mother of two sons, Matthew and stepson William, Gloria raised them with equal passion and nobility. Matthew McClure may have summed up his mother’s generous spirit best. “You showed me how to be a man; you taught me how to have a heart; you were my best friend. I could talk to you about anything.”

On Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, Gloria passed away during the night, a shock to those who saw her as vibrant and healthy the day before.

She was just 59.

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CHARLES VAN JOHNSON

August 25, 1916 to December 11, 2008

by Katharine Blossom Lowrie

The perennial “guy next door”

Despite his lightweight reputation as the perennial “guy next door” in musicals and comedies of the ’40s and ’50s, Van Johnson (above with Esther Williams in an MGM publicity still ) accrued first-rate reviews for sturdier roles: the values-burdened naval lieutenant who relieves Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) of his command in Edward Dmytryk’s 1954 adaptation of the Herman Wouk novel, “The Caine Mutiny”; Deborah Kerr’s illicit lover in Dmytryk’s 1955 adaptation of Graham Green’s “The End of the Affair,” and a bomber pilot in two WWII films, “A Guy Named Joe” (1943) and “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” (1944), in which the one-time chorus boy proved he could hold his own against the formidable Spencer Tracy.

An MGM musical junkie

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HELEN CECILIA SPITZER

September 24, 1922 to October 31, 2008

Family and friends, knowing Helen Spitzer’s door was always open, flocked to the historic old Colonial at 2540 West Royalton Road over the years.  Helen’s hospitality, all say, was as huge and welcoming as her generous heart. Unfortunately, that heart gave out on Friday, Oct. 31, 2008, when Helen Cecilia Spitzer, 86, died unexpectedly at home, her loving caregivers, Julie and April, with her at the time. Spending her last hours in the place she loved best – the 105-year-old restored residence in Brentwood Lake Village, OH, a community developed by her late husband John A. Spitzer and his brothers – was as Helen would have wanted it, her family said.

“The wind beneath his wings”

Imbued with the kind of sturdy Midwestern values and strong Catholic faith that can sometimes seem quaint and old-fashioned in this day and age, Helen was a traditional housewife who stayed home to raise five children, while her husband worked long hours to build the family business. It paid off. John Spitzer, former Chairman of the Spitzer Organization, a group of companies encompassing automotive retailing and real estate development, turned his father’s modest hardware store in Grafton, OH into multiple auto franchises around the country, eventually becoming one of the nation’s largest automotive retailers.

The Family Store

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