Gloria E. Kessinger

Gloria E. Kessinger, 93, died on October 10, 2021, in Colorado Springs, CO. She was born Feb. 14, 1928, in Tulia, TX, to Welborn Chesterfield and Verdi Grace Cowan. Gloria graduated from Tulia High School in May 1945, and left that fall to begin a nursing program at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her sophomore year, she met her future husband, E. Melvin Kessinger. The two were married in Tulia on June 24, 1947. After Mel graduated from seminary in 1951, Gloria began her career as a minister's wife. For the next 32 years, the two would serve Presbyterian churches in the Denver area (1951-1962), the Community Church of the Rockies in Estes Park (1962-1976) and the historic Jacksonville Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, OR (1976-1984). In 1978, Gloria opened the O'Clock Haus, a clock and music box shop in Jacksonville, which she operated for the next four years. Mel retired in 1984, but the couple remained in Oregon until returning to Colorado in 1992. Mel died in 2001. Gloria is survived by one brother, Joe Cowan, of Amarillo, TX; two daughters, Paula Megorden and Terri Cotten of Colorado Springs, and one son, Greg Kessinger of Denver. Survivors also include seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren. The couple's ashes will be interred at the Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies in Estes Park, returning them to the mountains they loved.