Susan "Gloria" (Brown) Grimes passed away peacefully on December 14, 2022, in Anacortes, Washington. She was born March 21, 1928, to Ethel Eleanor and Otho Frederic Brown in Los Angeles, California.  At the age of 12, following the untimely death of her mother, she moved to Camp Verde, Arizona to live with her Aunt Minnie and Uncle Frank Wingfield on their ranch.  It was there, she later met the love of her life, Walter L. Grimes, whom she married in 1946 on Groundhog's Day.

The story of their meeting was that Walter literally "flew into her life."  When urged by someone at a local dance to ask this shy young man for a spin around the dance floor, he responded that he didn't dance, but he would be happy to take her on an airplane ride in his N3N biplane!  The rest is a long-lived love story of an amazing couple, who were married very close to 64 years.

Through the years, Gloria, with her beautiful voice, was known to have a song for everything - name a subject, and she'd have a song for it! Many car rides were made more enjoyable with her off-the-cuff renditions.  Mothering came so natural to her and was generous to a fault, literally giving her daughters the shirt off her back, if they dared to compliment her on something she wore!  She was also known to be a doting "mother" to her flower gardens, sometimes seen brushing snow off her crocuses in the early Spring, uncovering their promise of warmer gardening weather soon to come. She was the quintessential "hostess with the mostest" wherever they lived, always ready with a welcoming smile and an impromptu invite to join the family at the dinner table. If there wasn't enough food to go around, she would just insist she was "dieting."

Susan "Gloria" was preceded in death by her husband Walter, her son-in-law, Marc Mechling, and granddaughter, Susan Brown. She is survived by her four children: Alan (Cathleen) Grimes, Annie (Carl Honore), Lorna (Ronald Gum) and Meredith Mechling, as well as nine grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

She will be interred later this Spring, on a date yet to be determined, next to her love, Walter, at the Middle Verde Cemetery in Camp Verde, Arizona.

To share memories of Susan, please sign the online guest register at www.evanschapel.com/obituary/susan-grimes.