Gloria Hartman passed away peacefully on May 9, 2025 in Santa Rosa. Gloria was born on November 2, 1956 in Eureka, to John and Beth Lunsford. Gloria was the middle of three girls and the typical middle child, mischievous, adventurous and a prankster. She spent her early years in King Salmon before moving to Rio Dell in elementary school. She grew up raising and riding horses, and loved disco music, dancing, and reading. While working as a nurse’s aide at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center in Fortuna in 1981, she met and fell in love with the maintenance man, Dain Hartman. They married in August 1982 in Fortuna and welcomed their first child, Stephanie, in February 1983. In May 1985 they welcomed a son, Sean, and the family moved to Scotia in 1986 when Dain took a job at the factory for Pacific Lumber Co.

Gloria loved being a stay-at-home mom and was an extraordinary artist and crafter. She would spend hours creating home décor items and beautiful dried flower arrangements that would sell in local shops. Throughout her life she mentored and supported many people struggling with addiction. She always volunteered at all her kids’ school activities and was like a second mom to many of Stephanie and Sean’s friends. Gloria was a huge Giants and 49ers fan and enjoyed traveling down to Candlestick nearly every summer to catch a baseball game. She loved driving up to Shively during the summers when the kids were young to pick wild blackberries and patronize the local fruit stands. Dain & Gloria saved up for years and bought their home in Fortuna in 1997, where they planted a vegetable garden nearly every year. Gloria had a green thumb and was a talented gardener, with an eye for beautiful landscaping. She would spend hours pruning and planting beautiful flowers.

Gloria spent many years in the late 1990s and early 2000s working at a few different stores at Bayshore Mall. She had an eye for fashion and accessorizing and loved helping people to look and feel their best. She had a great love and special connection with the elderly and disabled, and spent a few years working as an aide in multiple care homes until her health no longer allowed her to work. She continued that generosity of caretaking with her own mom until her death in 2007, as well as caring for her mother-in-law for over 11 years before her passing in 2014. She saw it as a privilege to care for them and never missed a day visiting them.

Gloria became a grandma in 2010 and traveled down south many times a year to visit and spoiled her 4 grandkids rotten. They called her Meme and loved to make her laugh, read books with her, and play games. Her love of reading also led her to volunteer at the Fortuna library in her spare time.

Gloria is survived by her husband of nearly 43 years, Dain Hartman, daughter, Stephanie Hawkins and son-in-law Michael, son, Sean Hartman. Her four grandchildren, Madeline, Samuel, Violet and Fiona. Her sister Penny Rumney and brother-in-law Greg, sister Emmy Hebert, sister-in-law Donna Fredrickson and brother-law Lars, brother-in-law David Hartman, and many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents, John and Beth Lunsford, in-laws David and Patsy Hartman, son Lamar Lunsford, and her loving brothers-in-law, Karl Hebert and Danny Hartman.

The family would like to thank the Fortuna Fire Department & EMT staff, as well as the ICU staff at Santa Rosa Memorial for their compassionate and excellent care of Gloria during her brief stay. Gloria’s remains will be interned at Sunrise Cemetery in Fortuna and a funeral Mass in celebration of her life will take place at a later date.