Gloria Carole Phipps Breitenbach

Published 4:32 pm Friday, January 17, 2025

Gloria Carole Phipps Breitenbach, 81, of Groton, Ct., died peacefully at her home with her husband and daughter by her side Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, the morning after the Winter Solstice. It was the fourth Sunday of Advent, represented by the purple Angel Candle symbolizing love. She was cremated on Jan. 3, 2025, and brought home to Bailey Hill where she had spent almost 60 years of her life.

Born in LaGrange, Ga., Sept. 27, 1943, Gloria attended Southwest Elementary School and graduated from LaGrange High School in 1961. She grew up surrounded by a large, close-knit family and friends that would be lifelong.

She traveled north to Connecticut after graduation to live with extended family and pursue a career. She soon met the love of her life and lifelong partner, Ralph. They were married on the fourth of July 1964 at the Groton Methodist Church. Memories of those early years included swimming at Misquamicut Beach, ice skating on the Mystic River, and tobogganing at Washington Park, attesting to the power of true love to keep the heart of a young southern lady warm.

Gloria gave birth to her daughter, Lea, in January 1970 and devoted herself completely to Lea’s upbringing, care, and education in the formative years. Lea’s fondest recollections of those early years include singing the popular hit “Delta Dawn” together, baking festively shaped and colorfully frosted cut-out Christmas cookies, creating lovingly handmade Valentines, learning how to read and play music, listening and dancing to music of all eras, enjoying time spent at Esker Point Beach, and feeling an ever-present sense of love.

Throughout her career, she worked as a legal/administrative/executive assistant and a trusted notary public and continued her education at both the University of New Haven and Mohegan Community College where she earned an associate’s degree. She retired in 1999, completing her career at Pfizer Inc. in Groton, where she had worked for 15 years.

In her youth, she attended Trinity Methodist Church in LaGrange, Ga. As an adult, she was an active member of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Gales Ferry, where she served as treasurer throughout the 1970s. In retirement, she attended Faith Lutheran Church in Punta Gorda, Fla.

She was predeceased by her father, Omar Bernard Phipps in 1982; her brother, Omar Eugene Phipps in 1983; and her mother, Claudia Harper Phipps in 1988. She is survived by her devoted husband of 60 years, Ralph Breitenbach; her beloved daughter and cherished son-in-law, Lea Teresa Breitenbach and Luis Paco Duran; her precious grandson, Emanuel Breitenbach Duran; her dear in-laws, Sylvia and Luie Duran, all of Groton; and four special nieces, Becky Benson Madden, Dale Howard, BettyAnn White, and Debra Ertola.

Because of her love of people and community, she thoroughly enjoyed event planning, organizing Ralph’s 40th birthday party, her daughter’s all-night graduation party for the Robert E. Fitch Class of 1988, two post-retirement celebrations, and multiple high school reunions spanning decades for the LaGrange High School Class of 1961.

Her exceptional communication, grammar, and writing skills were evident in everything she did from correspondence via handwritten cards and letters, detailed emails, and her annual Christmas letters to her house tour interviews and extensive write-ups for sorority fundraising events and the comprehensive packages she put together for class reunions and Ralph’s retirement party.

Upon retirement, she and her husband Ralph spent winters and springs at Herons Glen in North Fort Myers, Fla., where Gloria actively participated in multiple social and charitable organizations including two Red Hat Society groups, Socialites, and Alpha Gamma Nu, a chapter of Beta Sigma Phi. Summers, autumns, and the holidays were spent with family and friends in Groton, where she enjoyed soaking up the sun and spending time with family and friends at Shenecossett Beach Club, watching and cheering on her grandson at various youth sports activities, and spending time with him making pancakes on weekend mornings and playing checkers. Gloria kept southern traditions alive during the holidays by making her deviled eggs, cornbread dressing, and banana pudding, festively decorating her house and dining table, and providing hospitality to all who visited.

Throughout the year, she loved exploring new places and meeting new people, and traveled extensively throughout the world on cruises, train excursions, bus tours, and car trips up and down the East Coast. Adventures and special memories were well documented in photo frames and albums that filled her homes in Connecticut and Florida. Throughout her life, she and Ralph were avid ballroom dancers and loved to jitterbug. They enjoyed many local area events in Groton and as members of the Cape Coral Social Club, a dine and dance group in Florida, where she and Ralph enjoyed the camaraderie of friends and a love of music and dance. She had adored Elvis Presley since her years as a teen and knew all his songs by heart.

She was an enthusiastic UConn Husky fan for both the men and women’s basketball teams since her daughter’s college days and watched and supported them for many years to follow. She enjoyed the companionship and love of the German shepherds, Swedish Vallhund, and pugs that were part of the family throughout her adult life; and she loved to bird watch, especially the bald eagles, herons, hummingbirds, and cardinals throughout the year.

She was a loving and supportive wife and mother, a dedicated and caring daughter, sister, cousin, and aunt, and a loyal and generous friend. Truly, the world held no strangers for her, only friends she had not yet met. She was independent, brave, strong, elegant, and kind, and she will always be an inspiration. Gloria loved with her whole heart and will be forever missed. ILYWAMH