Gloria Zulieka Muzquiz Thorn Jones, a big name for a small woman with a big heart and a bigger spirit. Everyone called her Gogi; it suited her. Gogi passed away at the age of 93 on Wednesday, February 15, 2012, at her home of the past 22 years, in Bellevue Washington, of complications due to renal failure. Her family gathered to her in November, when she made her decision to cease dialysis, and her daughters Nanci Hunter and Judy Morse were with her for her final days along with their daughters, Traci Kersey, and Tami Hunter-Havens.
Gloria Jones' daughter Judy Morse has been living with her for the past seven years, moving to Washington to care for her and her 2nd husband Raymond Gerald Jones. Mr. Jones passed in in 2009.
Gloria Zulieka Muzquiz was born in Kerrville, Texas on September 15, 1918 to Narcissa (Nancy) Ayala Trevinio de Muzquiz; Gloria's father Don Felipe Muzquiz died just before she was born. After the death of her husband, Sra. Muzquiz moved her family from Muzquiz, Coahuila, Mexico to Texas with Gloria's siblings Simon, Blanca, and Raymundo. Gloria was born there, in Kerrville. Sra. Muzquiz wanted to be with her family and especially to be near her mother Paula Trevinio Ayala and her father Simon Ayala . Nancy Muzquiz was remarried there to Mr. Cerda a childhood friend and brother to her Sister Lucy's husband; they gave Gloria a step-sister, Francis Esmeralda (Lala). After Lala's birth in 1922, the family moved to Fontana, California to be near Nancy's older sister Lucy and her family, bringing their mother, the now widowed Grandma Paula with them. Fontana was mainly rural then with orchards of fruit trees and farm animals. Later it became known as a steel town with the arrival of Kaiser Steel Mill during World War II, developing into one of the largest steel producing mills in the world. But when the newly wed Nancy and Mr. Cerda brought their family to live there it was a sleepy little town that wasn't even big enough to support a church. So, until the community church was built, every Sunday Nancy and Lucy held Sunday school and a picnic for their brood and the neighbors under the umbrella trees that separated the distance between their homes. Nancy delivered a sermon after the Sunday school classes while Gloria and her siblings and cousins played in the shade of the umbrella trees. Grandma Paula died during one of the services, sitting in her wheel chair under the trees with the children encircling her in a game of 'ring around the rosie.' A white dove rested on Grandma's shoulder and one was on her hand when she died. It was a profound memory for the young Gloria.
Gloria Muzquiz graduated from High School in Fontana California, moved to Los Angeles to study hair dressing and became a hairdresser to the stars in Beverly Hills. It was there she met her first husband, Dale Eugene Thorn at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. Dressed in a zoot suit, he told her he was a gangster when they first met so that he would seem interesting to her. At five foot six inches he was a perfect match to her four foot eleven inches and 95 pounds; they were adorable. He lost the zoot suit and admitted he wasn't Al Capone's sidekick, but he never lost his swagger, and it was that swagger that won her heart. As it turned out, he lived four blocks from her and she could see him as he came up the block with a bouquet of flowers that he had handpicked from unsuspecting neighbor's yard. Singing and swinging his arms until it seemed impossible that any petals would make it to her front door.
They married September 2, 1939, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Thorn. It was the end of the great depression, but times were still tough, Dale lost his job and Gloria, now pregnant, was too ill to work. Left in a desperate position they moved to a nice housekeep room and Dale washed cars during the day and wrapped newspapers at night. They decided that Dale should go to Redding, California along with most of Gloria's sibling and their families, where the men worked on FDR's PWA project at Shasta Dam and Gloria would stay with her mother until the baby was born. Gloria and their daughter Nancy Diane joined Dale in Redding in late June of 1940. They moved back to Fontana stayed with Gloria's mother until Their Second daughter Judy Janeen was born in 1944. The Family bought a small house on Lincoln Drive in San Bernardino and remained there with Gogi and Dale building a hairdressing dynasty of six beauty salons all called Gogi's. Gogi's strong organizational skills, leadership qualities, and creativity blossomed as she ran the salons and Dale managed them. Stalwart members of the community, nurturing their daughters, Gogi and Dale kept the romance in their marriage with trips to Paris and Jamaica. Life was good and after 36 years together Dale fell ill and at the age of 63 he passed leaving a young and beautiful widow to figure out the business end of the management power house they had built.

More biography about Gogi to come