Gloria E. (Schumacher) Bishop, 82, died Dec. 26, 2008, at the Deauville Senior Center in Lowell, Mass. of mesothelioma.
She was born March 20, 1926 in West New York, N.J., the daughter of John and Jennie (Forenza) Schumacher.
In 1931 she moved to Newcastle with her parents and brother, Jack, where she attended Franklin Grammar School and then Castner Grammar School when the family moved to Damariscotta in 1935. She graduated from Lincoln Academy in 1943 and immediately took a job at Bath Iron Works. She worked as a pipe coverer and received the Navy “E” for excellence and in 1946 left as one of the very last women in BIW at the time.
She then became a waitress at the Riverview Restaurant in Damariscotta, where Stars Jewelers is presently located, that same year. Several years later she went to Bradenton, Fla. and worked at the Manatee River Hotel where she met and married William (Billy) Bishop, the chef-steward there. They worked at the Rockaway Hotel in Gloucester, Mass. summers where Billy was also a chef-steward and returned to Florida winters.
The luxury of several months free each spring and fall gave her the time to become an avid gardener and very accomplished embroiderer, especially in crewel work. When they retired, Gloria was in much demand for training hostesses and waitresses in upscale restaurants. She also kept her neighbors and her family in Maine well supplied with jams and jellies from her garden and orchard, together with delicious baked goods.
Gloria was predeceased by her husband, Billy, in 1976.
She is survived by her companion of some 30 years, Peter Hupfeld; brother, Jack and wife Dorothy; nieces, Gloria of Owls Head, and Jennie Hoffman and husband, Mark; nephew, John Michael Schumacher; grand-niece, Sophie Schumacher; and grand-nephew, Ryan Hoffman, all of Newcastle.
There will be a celebration of her life at the Schumacher residence in the spring.
Remembrances may be sent in her name to the Robert Clunie Jr. Scholarship Fund, Lincoln Academy, 81 Academy Hill Rd., Newcastle, ME 04553.
