Gloria Gay (Peters) Engelken

Gloria Gay Engelken, 72, of Manchester, Iowa, passed away on Monday, June 19, 2023, at her home surrounded by family. She was born July 7, 1950, at Mercy Hospital in Anamosa, Iowa, to parents Gale A. and Charlene M. (Sheldon) Peters, and brother Terry. Gloria grew up in Oxford Junction, Iowa, where she developed her strong work ethic, important values and life skills, and her strong empathy for others because helping your neighbor was the right thing to do.  

Gloria moved to Cedar Rapids and spent time working at Collins Radio, where she made many lifelong friends, and eventually met the love of her life. On August 9, 1975, Gloria married Ronald Engelken at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids. In 1977, she gave birth to her son, Todd, and became a stay-at-home mother. In 1987, the family adopted daughter, Lindsey, from South Korea.

In 1992, the family relocated to Lakeville, Minnesota, due to a job transfer. Ron traveled a lot for work, and Gloria kept busy as a homemaker, wife, mother, friend, chauffeur, volunteer, and caregiver to her mother, Charlene. After Ron retired from sales and traveling, he and Gloria ran a small family cabinet making business where she handled bookkeeping, procurement, and her favorite role as quality control, making sure she pointed out every imperfection. After wintering in Florida for a few years, Ron and Gloria retired to Manchester in 2020 to be near family.

Throughout her life, Gloria’s strong faith led her to volunteer her time to both St. Paul’s and later Grace United Methodist Church in Burnsville, Minnesota. She delivered flowers to hospital patients, helped with youth groups, painted, did fundraising, and numerous other ways she could support the churches that meant so much to her. She also volunteered for the yearly Lakeville Minnesota Community Celebration activities.

Gloria never met a stranger, made friends easily, had a great sense of humor and was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She loved to socialize, host parties, go out to eat, enjoyed traveling, skiing, snowmobiling, fishing, cruises, reading, dancing, the Hallmark Channel, giving gifts to friends and family, and all things Christmas. She will be missed by all who knew her.

Survivors include her husband of 47 years, Ronald Engelken of Manchester; son, Todd (Rita) Engelken of New Market, Minnesota; daughter, Lindsey Engelken of New York, New York; stepdaughter, Annette Brown of Albuquerque, New Mexico; five grandchildren, Axl and Londyn Hall of New Market, Minnesota, Maerin Fitzgerald of New York, New York, Connor (Cassie) Brown of Edgewood, New Mexico, and Tannor Brown of Tijeras, New Mexico; great-granddaughter, Aspen Brown of Edgewood, New Mexico; sister-in-law, Becky Peters of Cedar Rapids; niece, Denise (Nick) White of Marion, great-niece, Julia Cornelius of Marion; and special cousin, Kathy Usher of Oxford Junction.

Gloria was preceded in death by her parents, Gale and Charlene Peters; and her brother, Terry Peters.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the following organizations:

ALS Foundation, Attn: Iowa Chapter, 1919 University Way, Suite 175, St. Paul, Minnesota 55104 or

St. Croix Hospice, 101 Elkader Street, Strawberry Point, Iowa 52076.

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