Glenda Jean Karr Gleckner

Glenda Jean Karr Gleckner of Chapel Hill, NC, died peacefully at her home on July 24, 2025. She was 99 years old.

 

Glenda was born March 21, 1926, in Aurora, NE, to Glenn Wesley Karr and Freda Frances Klimper Karr. She was the fourth of four children, with two sisters, Adelaine and Nadyne, and a brother, Frank. Glenda grew up in Hastings, NE and attended Hastings High School, where she was very involved in school activities. She played clarinet in the band and orchestra and was a cheerleader and majorette. She graduated in June 1944 and just a few months later met her future husband, Robert F. Gleckner, at a reception at the Harvard Army Airfield in Hastings, NE. Robert and Glenda were married on February 7, 1946, in the Presbyterian Church in Hastings, NE.

 

In 1962, after Robert earned his Ph.D., they – along with their two small children, Jeffrey and Susan -- moved to the small community of Grand Terrace in southern California, on the outskirts of Riverside, where Robert accepted a position as an English professor at the University of California, Riverside.

 

An excellent musician, Glenda played clarinet with the Riverside Symphony Orchestra and directed three popular musical productions for UC Riverside, with proceeds going to student scholarships. “The Forties Follies,” “The Forties Follies II,” and “The Flapper Follies,” produced and directed by Glenda from 1974-1976, featured many of UCR’s students and faculty members, including the chancellor of the university. She was also very involved with the UCR Faculty Wives Club, took up painting as a hobby, audited Spanish courses at UCR, played classical piano, and enjoyed snow skiing and genealogy. In 1978, Glenda and Robert moved from California to Raleigh, NC, where Robert taught at Duke University. After Robert’s death in 2001, Glenda moved to Chapel Hill.

 

Glenda was preceded in death by her husband, Robert F. Gleckner; parents, Glenn Karr and Freda Karr Schoonover; son, Jeffrey Michael Gleckner; sisters, Adelaine Donahoo and Nadyne Bickley Stone; and brother, Frank Wesley Karr.

 

She is survived by her daughter, Susan Gleckner Breyer (Ron) of Beaumont, CA; six grandchildren: Karryn Lurock (Jamie), Kristen Montes (Jerry), Joseph Breyer (Gwyneth), Gregory Breyer (Julia), Heather Breyer Han (Abraham), and Amanda Breyer Koziol (Tobin); and 12 great-grandchildren: Tristan, Julian and Karlia Montes, Roman and Jaxton Lurock, Nixon and Freya Breyer, Llyr and Gwynhwyfar Breyer, Miles Han, and Owen and Ethan Koziol.

 

Private interment will be at Parkview Cemetery, Hastings, NE. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.lbvfh.com. Livingston Butler Volland Funeral Home & Cremation Center is serving the family.