Gloria Foretich

Gloria Ann Seidule Foretich passed away peacefully on January 8, 2026. Gloria was born on May 8, 1930 and was raised in Biloxi, Mississippi. She started work young as a “‘Soda Jerk” at Kress Five & Dime, then after World War II quit school and went to work at Keesler AFB at age 16 or 17. Work defined our mother’s life - she only finally quit her store in her 80’s when she had to sell it to take care of our dad - easily the hardest work she ever did. Mom was always busy with something. I seldom remember her sitting - there was always some project.

A child of The Depression, she’d say they didn’t know about it really because everyone was already poor, but she had stories of how they made money and got by. One was how they would shell pecans to sell to the local confectioner, complete halves were worth more and snacking was frowned upon - she had a hard time with this. They lived for a while with her maternal grandparents, Mommee and Poppee Galloway along with various other family who came and went during The Depression. The fishmonger would push his cart past the house and Mom remembered Mommee sharply questioning the freshness of the fish - a tiny grandma, “as tall as she was wide” was by all accounts fierce. I am pretty sure she was Mom’s role model.

She grew up swimming in the Gulf, visiting her Aunt’s and Uncle’s farm "up in the country" where she ate figs while sitting in the tree with her cousins and she loved running around with her older brothers - she was a Tomboy. Her oldest brother Arnold J. Seidule survives her but John E. “Jack” Seidule died in 1970. Her estranged father died when she was a teen, but her mother Myrtis had remarried Lee Ankerson and two more brothers followed: Lee Thomas “Tommy,” the elder and Michael Anthony “Mike,” both deceased. Mom loved all of her brothers, but her relationship with the younger ones was different because she helped raise them.

She married another Biloxi native, Elliott Lawrence “Larry" Foretich (1927-2016) on New Year’s Eve, 1947, 4 months shy of her 18th birthday. He said she informed him the next day that he would need to get a job, this laid out the pattern of their lives, Mom was the go-getter.

By the 50’s they were living in Ft. Worth, Texas near her mom’s sister Doris “Aunt Da” Azzaro. It was so hot and dry during the famous drought, Mom said it was like “moving to Hell”.

Mom tried her hand at being a restaurateur, she and Dad briefly owned Mary’s (Mah-Reez) in Biloxi where they served roast beef PoBoys - I still make the recipe that Mary, the original owner, taught Mom. They owned a restaurant in Ft.Worth in the 50’s for a short time. And in the 70’s, an ice cream shop in Cleburne, Texas

Kenneth Lawrence “Kenny" (1951-2000) and Susan Ann were born in the 50’s and raised mostly in the Ft. Worth area after brief moves back “home” to the coast. By the 60’s they had settled into suburban life in Euless,Texas. They essentially started a second family when at age 36, old for then, Mom had a third child, Kelly Lynn.

Kenny left for college and our parents moved to the country where Susan finished her senior year at Godley High. Mom left her manicured suburban lawn for a rocky ranch; undeterred, she started a cactus garden and kept the “lawn" (really a pasture) beaten back as best as could be and somehow managed to have a vegetable garden in all those rocks. We had chickens and briefly some goats and guineas. She helped feed the cattle owned by the absentee neighbor, collected Mustang grapes for her own jam and wine, made whole wheat bread, and bought milk from the dairy down the road. We may have been Hippies. No, Mom was too respectable for that (always putting on town clothes and having her hair done weekly) but looking back, it was a bit Bohemian.

Rounding out this “second" family came when Susan’s family had troubles, her son came to live with us and was eventually adopted by Mom and Dad making them new parents again, of Shawn Coby Foretich.

After a brief stint owning a Housecleaning business in the 70’s, Mom decided to go into retail. Kenny had told her about Trader’s Village flea market in Grand Prairie, Texas and she took off on this. Dad was working as a saddle maker and her idea was to utilize his leather working skills to make some belts and buy some odds and ends to sell at Trader’s Village every weekend. The model was good: low overhead, low rent, high traffic. It worked and they had Circle G Leather Co. for 40 years. She had additional stores selling: carpet remnants, Wall’s outerwear, Sear’s Liquidation (well ahead of her time!) and finally a very nice purse store. They had a store in Cleburne, Texas briefly; the Cheyenne Frontier Days for nearly a decade; seasonally at mall kiosks in the 90’s and at the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo for nearly 40 years. In the early years they also sold custom-made belts through their own store and other Western Wear stores - known for quality and artistry, they were sought after.

I don’t think it is a stretch to say, Mom was an entrepreneur.

She dearly loved being a grandmother to (in order of age), Darden, Mindalena and Tulwen Adams and Selah, Naomi and Isaac Foretich. Last year she became a great-grandmother to Archer and it brought her great joy to hold this last baby. She became somewhat forgetful over the last few years but any visits from these kids made her very happy and she always thought to ask about them and her brothers.

As mentioned above, her brother Arnold “AJ” Seidule of Richards, Texas survives her. She was so proud that he went to college and had such a good job and was such a good man. Her good friend and cousin Sandra Azzaro Tork of Haltom City, Texas also survives her. James Seidule of The Villages, Florida is her only surviving half-brother.

Her daughters Susan Foretich Wharton of West Valley City, Utah and Kelly Adams of Ladonia, Texas and son Shawn Foretich of Paris, Texas will have her memorial at The Lone Star Grill in Commerce, Texas on March, 30th at 11AM. After this, her ashes will be interred next to Larry’s and Kenny’s at Rosemound Cemetery in Commerce, Texas.