Gloria Jean Yarbrough

Gloria Jean Yarbrough went home to be with Jesus on April 11, 2026.

She was born on May 31, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, to Delidia and Chester Spragg. At the age of five, she was adopted by Lyle and Dorothy Davidson and raised in Pittsburg, Kansas, where she graduated from Pittsburg High School in 1958. Not long after, she made her way to Oklahoma and built the life that became her legacy.

On October 10, 1962, she married the love of her life, D.C. Yarbrough. They shared 33 years of marriage before his passing in 1996. Gloria loved her family hard and stood by them with the kind of loyalty that does not bend much and does not break at all.

She was a wife, mother, sister, grandma, great-grandma, aunt, and friend, but anybody who knew Gloria knows those titles only tell part of it. She was loud, wild, honest, funny, stubborn, generous, and completely herself from start to finish. She did not need a drink to be the life of the party. She did not need permission to say what she thought either. If she loved you, you knew it. If she did not agree with you, you probably knew that too. Either way, she still loved her people through all of it.

Gloria made a house feel alive. She was a great cook, most famously her potato soup and homemade noodles nobody will ever quite duplicate. She gave good advice, kept bottled water close, loved the Hallmark Channel, wore her bikinis without an ounce of shame, fussed about half-drank cans left sitting around, and had a way of making ordinary days stick in people’s hearts. There were ice cream sandwiches and sodas by the pool at all times. Easter egg hunts in the front yard every year. Sunday pool days at Gigi’s were a weekly hang. Of course, the doors getting locked when she’d had enough of the grandkids running wild. A surprise blue Ford Maverick that made a 16 year old girl feel seen and loved. Little moments, big love.

She was young at heart, fierce in spirit, and funny in a way that could catch you off guard. She could say something outrageous, make everybody laugh, and still be the glue holding the family together. She had a way of acting like everything would work out, and somehow, around her, it usually did. Maybe because she was one of the reasons it did.

Gloria is survived by her children, Barbara Hunter, Glenda Williamson, Garold Yarbrough, and Greg Yarbrough; her grandchildren, Adam, Amy, Kristi, Alicia, Julie, Weston, Shasta, Leslie, and Cody; her 13 great-grandchildren, Grey, Lauren, Emry, Evan, Kassidy, Kinley, Alec, Madelyn, Noah, Lorelai, Aaron, Isabelle, Archer, and Cole; and her 3 great-great-grandchildren, Haizlee, Pierce, and Kayne. She is also survived by her sisters, Joetta, Rita, Rayetta, and Jackie; her brothers, Gary and Danny; and more friends than anyone could count, many of whom became family in every way that mattered.

She will be missed terribly, talked about often, laughed about for years, and loved for the rest of our lives.

A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, April 25, 2026 at the Yanda & Son Funeral Home Chapel, Yukon, Oklahoma.