Comey, Gladys
COMEY, Gladys
Gladys L. Comey (Glad), of Dunwoody, passed on Thursday, October 14th, from complications of dementia. Glad was born on January 20, 1930, in Dearborn, Michigan, to Marcella and Herbert Mathieson. She has one sibling, Leroy (Lee), who lives in Oregon. Glad graduated from Dearborn High School in 1948. She got trained to use the comptometer – a complicated, mechanical calculator at the time – because jobs using it paid very well. She landed an excellent position at Stinson Aircraft, a large, thriving company in 1948, but no longer in existence. While working at Stinson, Glad entered the "Miss Page One" beauty contest that was promoted by the Detroit Free Press, the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan. After winning the pageant, a formal award ceremony – complete with a dinner and dance – followed, wherein Glad got to dance with the governor of Michigan. Glad's picture, along with a shot of her dancing with the governor, appeared the next day on the front page of the newspaper. Glad, being a highly personable young lady, grew bored with the tedious Stinson job and decided to apply at Ford Motor Company in 1949, where she was hired as a high profile receptionist at their large engineering facility in Dearborn. All the Ford executives and up-and-comers passed through this facility. It was here that a dashing, Columbia University graduate named William (Bill) Comey from Yonkers, New York, caught her eye. He was selected the prior year from the top graduates of elite engineering schools to enter Ford's prestigious management training program. Although Glad could choose from many suitors, she fell in love with the tall, handsome, and humorous Irishman from Yonkers. They were married on September 15, 1951. Glad and Bill had three children: Greg, Colleen, and William (Bill) III; and four grandchildren: Alexandra (Lexi), Caitlin, Cadey, and William IV (Liam). Their marriage lasted almost 54 years, ending only with his passing in 2005. By chance, at a Starbucks in Dunwoody in 2006, Glad met Tom Carpenter, a recent widower. Glad and Tom would go on to share many years and great times together, including attending dozens of local dances, plays, and gatherings, as well as out of state vacations with family and friends. Tom visited Glad almost every day, later with the help of his daughter, Melissa Nalley. Tom and Glad were a loving couple right up to Glad's passing. Over the years while her kids were in school, Glad kept busy with different part-time jobs, like being a bookkeeper for a small restaurant chain, an administrator for a hospital nurses' station, and a sales clerk for a high-end dress shop. Later, when the kids had either moved out or were away at college, she became a real estate agent for prominent, Atlanta-area Northside Realty, the biggest real estate company in the Southeast and one of the largest in America at the time. Glad's proudest business achievement was earning a top spot in the Million Dollar Club, which happened almost every year of her faithful tenure at Northside. After retiring from real estate, Glad and Bill traveled the world, making stops in Ireland, Singapore, Indonesia, Spain, Russia, and Canada, to name a few countries. They also discovered cruising, enjoying scores of nights on the open waters together. Glad's favorite country was always the U.S.A., and she loved visiting her kids/grandkids in California, Massachusetts, and Georgia. Although Glad never went to college, she made sure all three of her kids did, and they all went on to earn advanced degrees. She was a loving soul who believed in strict discipline, saving for the future, hard work, respect for others, and any song sung by Frank Sinatra. Glad will be buried at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, Georgia, where Bill, a Navy veteran, currently rests.
