| Honored by: | The McGlade Children |
| Brick location: | G:4 map |
On August 26, 1905 a very special woman was born - Loretta Weiland McGlade. She was one of nine children born to Leonard and Anna Weiland of Gilbertville, Iowa. The Weiland household was quite large however due to Leonard's eight children from a previous marriage. As a result resources were tight and Loretta chose to leave home before finishing high school to take a job as a nanny and housekeeper for a prominent physician and his family in Waterloo, Iowa.
A quiet introspective young girl Loretta worked very hard for the Thorton family and they as so many others during her lifetime were touched by her dedication and took her into their hearts. It was while working for the Thortons that Loretta met Joseph McGlade a young graduate of West High School and a brick mason. They fell in love and were married on December 8, 1927 with the Thortons acting as witnesses at Sacred Heart Church in Waterloo. By 1933 Loretta had given birth to two sons Thomas and Richard who would become the centerpieces of her life.
As her husband Joe worked daily with his father William laying brick for a Waterloo construction firm Loretta watched over and raised their two sons. As noted by her youngest son Richard "If I were to say what Mom stood for it was the total dedication of herself to the needs of her children and the happiness of her family." Loretta's loving and giving spirit did not stop with her family however and extended to those that she did not even know. Richard remembered the unsolicited sacrifices that Loretta made as a struggling "war wife" raising two boys on her own while her husband Joe was far away fighting with the Seabees during World War II.
In order to clothe and feed her sons Loretta took in heavy laundry jobs in their small apartment but always left a cup on the stoop filled with some of her hard-earned money for "down-on-their-luck" strangers who frequently passed by. When Joe came home from the war times got better for the McGlades. With help from their frugal son Richard Joe and Loretta started the first of several successful small businesses in the 1950's. For the next twenty years Loretta was head bookkeeper and accountant for the family businesses and the McGlades prospered. She continued to give of herself to the community of Waterloo serving several terms as the President of the Women's Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization.
In the 1960's and 1970's her grandchildren fondly remember visiting "Grandma" who always slipped pocket change into their hands with a kiss and the whispered secret "Now don't tell your folks - this is for you!" On March 12, 1974 her family suffered the tragic loss of her sudden death due to a massive stroke.
In her lifetime, Loretta rarely traveled beyond the seven short miles that encompassed her journey from Gilbertville to Waterloo However the circle of family love that she started has now spread across the United States as she has 11 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren living as far east as New Jersey as far south as Texas and way out west in Wyoming. Thus she forever travels now in the hearts and memories of her loving grateful family.
2/21/95