Gloria Revilla Doyle

July 15, 1940 - September 2, 2015 Gloria Revilla Doyle, 75, died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles, California on September 2 in the early morning, with her loving husband and children at her bedside. She was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1940. When she was a toddler, her parents returned to California and settled in Fresno, where she grew up and graduated from Fresno High School. She had a natural flair for drama and in 1957 she was awarded a scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse. Instead of pursuing acting, she enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, and graduated in 1962 with a degree in history. Gloria met her husband, Denis Philip Doyle, when they were students at Berkeley and were married at the age of 21, when they were seniors. They settled in Sacramento, California, where they lived for 10 years before moving with their children, Alicia and Christopher, to Chevy Chase, Maryland in 1972. Gloria had a lifelong fascination with politics, current events, and history and she particularly enjoyed living on the East Coast. She worked for the Los Angeles Times in the Washington Bureau for five years, beginning in 1976. In 1981 she was found to have a serious, degenerative, neurological condition that would render her a quadriplegic. At the time, doctors told her she might live five years. For nearly 35 years, Gloria overcame extraordinary suffering and difficulty with uncommon courage and tenacity, flexibility and grace. Confined to a wheelchair for much of her adult life, she travelled, entertained, hosted a long-running movie discussion group, and wrote three books: Gloria's Kitchen, A Journey Not Chosen, and A Child of Three Cultures. She and her husband lived in Maryland for nearly 40 years before returning to California to be near their children and grandchildren. Gloria had a remarkable eye and a tireless ability to create beauty wherever she went. Her friends and family remember her as a woman of singular dignity and strength, perseverance and generosity, kindness and bravery, possessing a powerful life force and will to live in the face of very trying circumstances. All of her life, she remained an exceptionally strong, unafraid, open-minded, and clear-eyed woman with an unwavering sense of right and wrong. Gloria loved travel, fine art, food and wine, but perhaps most of all she cherished vigorous, spirited, and candid conversation. Gloria's husband, Denis, and her daughter, Alicia (as well as Alicia's son, Tobias, daughter, Chloe, and husband, Jeffrey) in Los Angeles, and her son Christopher (and his son, Luke, daughter, Lola, and his wife, Emily) in San Francisco, survive her and celebrate her extraordinary legacy. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in Gloria's name to the Saint Anne School, 2015 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404.