Glenda Holbrook Wilson

Glenda Lee Holbrook was born in Porterville, California, on May 31, 1937. She grew up on a small orange grove with her sister Donna. As a girl, she raised chickens and (briefly) pigs, though that didn't go very well. A bone disease made her chair-bound for 4 years in her early elementary years , but she recovered by the time she went to high school. She was especially close to her father, Ort Holbrook, who was the one who told her from a young age that she was going to college. His reasoning was that many families were saved during the Great Depression by the women who were educated enough to become teachers.

Glenda was an exceptional student, and especially a good writer. She and her high school sweetheart, Leroy (Vic Dossey), went to junior college together, married, and then went to Fresno State. Glenda graduated with honors with a degree in Home Economics and became a high school teacher. After graduation, the young couple moved to Whittier, Merced, Turlock, Fresno, and eventually Visalia, following Vic's banking career. They had three children, first Denise and soon afterwards, Michael, and then later Leslie.

Glenda was a teacher for 29 years and most of this time was spent teaching high school in Tulare. First she taught sewing and cooking (even handling the students who put weed in the chocolate chip cookies). When educational fashions changed, she taught Freshman Studies (Geography, Driver's Ed, and eventually Sex Ed). Glenda in fact designed the Sex Ed curriculum for the Tulare City School District. Once, when she was strolling through a mall with her second husband, Ted Wilson, a burly young man came up to her and gave her a hug, saying "Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Wilson, you taught me everything I know about sex!"

In addition to teaching, Glenda loved creating things. She sewed Halloween and Renaissance fair costumes for her children, she cooked an incredible number of foods (her children considered it normal to have a previously unknown dish served to them every night). She did crotchet, embroidery, and knitting. In her retirement, she learned how to make intricate Native American baskets from the pine needles she collected and sold them at crafts fairs. One of her biggest joys was volunteering at the Visalia Public Library where she repaired books, loving it so much that she said she should have made her career working at a library. And she wrote, composing many, many stories, about her past and her present, about the people in her life, and about growing old. In early retirement, she wrote a novel about a woman in the 1950's and 1960's overcoming the sexual harassment and discrimination that surrounded her. Even as she began to lose some of her abilities, she continued to make what she could: knitting simple hats, taking longer to finish her beautiful embroideries, but never giving up.

She was a loving daughter, niece, wife, sister, mother, mother-in-law, aunt, grandmother, and great grandmother, with the gift of making each person in her life feel that they were uniquely special to her. When her mother and aunt grew old, she took care of them. One of her lasting regrets was that she was out of the country when her beloved Auntie "Nee" died. She gave her children the gift of letting them pursue their own passions. Glenda never tried to force anybody into a certain mold. She was the one ready to help them realize their dreams, however strange. She seemed so selfless that sometimes it was easy for her family to forget how many dreams and talents she had for herself. She no doubt had her regrets and her roads not taken, but she never let them know.

Glenda left Tulare county in 2016 and moved to Humboldt county to be near one of her daughters, Denise, and some of her grandkids. She spent almost 9 years there enjoying family, bird watching, picking blackberries, attending book clubs, writing stories, knitting, and contemplating life's mysteries. Glenda spent her last few years as a guest at Sequoia Springs Senior Living in Fortuna where she could frequently be heard telling other guests to get over themselves and watch more Perry Mason, Andy Griffith, and I Love Lucy. Staff would fondly recall her antics and wit as they lovingly cared for her. Glenda passed away at Sequoia Springs on April 30, 2025, surrounded by her three loving children Denise, Michael, and Leslie.

Miss you mom.

There will be a memorial gathering on Saturday, August 9, 11 am - 3 pm at Best Western Porterville Inn, 350 W Montgomery Ave, Porterville, CA 93257. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Friends of the Tulare County Library https://www.tularecountylibrary.org/foundation