Aug. 22, 1930 ~ Feb. 15, 2025
Born in Cripple Creek, Colorado, to Wm and Lenore Kyner, she was raised in Colorado; first in Cripple Creek, then Denver and at age 14 she and her mother moved to the oil field “boom town” of Rangely, on the Western Slope, where Lenore started the Rangely Times. At the end of WWII she met the brother of a classmate, Troy Ross “Buck” Pollard, just returning from war, whom she married a year later at the age of 16.
Buck and Gloria were constant companions, raising three girls and owning and running several businesses in the Rangely area: Pollard Trucking, B&M Services, Rockvale Construction, Parkview Apartments and Mobile Home Park, and the “Rector” and “Hefley” cattle ranches. In later years they owned and operated Pollard’s Ute Lodge, a 700 acre guest ranch on the edges of the White River National Forest. Retirement took them to Arizona in the winter, where they enjoyed many years of jeeping, rock hunting and get-togethers with their many friends, and summers in Grand Junction, Colorado, where they ran a small ranch with their grandson, Josh. Health issues had them eventually settling in Marble Falls, Texas.
Gloria was preceded in death by her husband of 70 years, Buck Pollard; her oldest daughter Terry “Pepper” Ott Nimon; and her sons-in-law: Alan “AJ” Nimon, Bill Anderson and Philip Chandler. She is survived by her daughters Troya “Kathy” Anderson Lightman (Bryan), Nevada; and Londa Chandler, Texas; and honorary son Tom (Colleen) Peterson, Colorado; as well as grandchildren: Joshua Ott, Nathan (Vicki) and Ryan (Michelle) Anderson, Denver (Annie), Christopher (Marie), Donovan (Emily) and Dalton Chandler and Jancie Russell; 16 great grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
Gloria was an avid seamstress, finding her calling with Creative Hearts Ministry where she did the binding on hundreds of quilts to gift to the area nursing homes, veteran hospitals, police departments and soldiers. She was also very active in Burnet County Republicans, manning booths at the area festivals, block walking and working elections well into her 90’s.
She left this world surrounded by her loving family, and is “dancing across heaven” (Alan Jackson) with the love of her life. A family Celebration of Life is being planned for this summer.
