Gloria Lipson

Gloria Lipson

Jan. 10, 1929 - June 6, 2014

PETERBOROUGH, New Hampshire -- Gloria Lipson, 85, of Peterborough, died peacefully Friday morning, June 6, 2014, after many years of struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She was surrounded by friends and family.

Gloria Alma (Anna Amanda) Hoff was born on Jan. 10, 1929, in Omaha, Nebraska, to the Rev. Alfred and Laura Pankow Hoff. She grew up in Millard, Nebraska, and graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1947. She married the late Alexander Campbell of Culbertson, Nebraska, in 1949, and became a farm wife.

In 1969, she married the late L. Lynn Lipson of McCook, Nebraska. Gloria and Lynn shared a love of singing and banjo music and attended many folk festivals together. She sang in the choir at St. Alban's Church, McCook, and also served on Altar Guild. She served on the board of Community Concerts Association, and volunteered as a Pink Lady at St. Catherine's Hospital, giving friendship and comfort to the sick and suffering.

After her second husband's death in 1974, Gloria set out to shape the last half of her life. She attended McCook Community College and the University of Rhode Island. Gloria was a founding member of the McCook chapter of the National Organization for Women. She campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment.

During the late 1970s, Gloria started opening her home on West F Street in McCook to shelter battered women. Police officers brought women to stay in order to remove them from dangerous and abusive situations. Often the women stayed overnight, and sometimes they brought their children. Gloria's friends, who frequently visited at her house, were sworn to secrecy to protect everyone involved. She was kind and generous, famous for her hospitality and endless coffee pot. Friends and newcomers alike were treated like family.

In 1990, Gloria moved to Peterborough, to be closer to her daughter. She was a member of the Pastoral Care Committee at All Saints Church, Peterborough. Gloria approached the world with enthusiasm and with genuine caring. She touched the lives of so many around her. She was the honorary grandmother to Elizabeth Buckingham of Portland, Maine, beloved babysitter of Will and Elizabeth Robbins-Cole of Wellesley, Massachusetts, and godmother to Paul Clark, of McCook.

Gloria is survived by one daughter, Laura Campbell, of Peterborough; two step-daughters, Christine Guarrasi of Gloucester, Massachusetts; Diana Burge, of Manhattan Beach, California; and one step-son, Randall Lipson of Williamsburg, Kansas. Her brother, Leon Hoff, preceded her in death.

A celebration of her life will be in McCook later this fall.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Ave., 7th fl., New York, NY 10001, The Nature Conservancy, or the McCook Humane Society, 100 South Street, McCook, NE 69001.